Happy Birthday GAO

Accountability Is Their Middle Name

Some recent reports from GAO:
Economic Development: Efficiency and Effectiveness of Fragmented Programs Are Unclear

Climate Change Adaptation: Aligning Funding with Strategic Priorities

Financial Education and Counseling Pilot Program

Value-Added Taxes: Potential Lessons for the United States from Other Countries' Experiences

Data Center Consolidation: Agencies Need to Complete Inventories and Plans to Achieve Expected Savings

Millennium Challenge Corporation: Compacts in Cape Verde and Honduras Achieved Reduced Targets

Information Sharing Environment: Better Road Map Needed to Guide Implementation and Investments

Pakistan Assistance: Relatively Little of the $3 Billion in Requested Assistance Is Subject to State's Certification of Pakistan's Progress on Nonproliferation and Counterterrorism Issues

Drinking Water: Unreliable State Data Limit EPA's Ability to Target Enforcement Priorities and Communicate Water Systems' Performance

Information Technology: Continued Attention Needed to Accurately Report Federal Spending and Improve Management

Cost and Legal Authority for Selected Financial Literacy Programs and Activities

Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Dating Violence, and Stalking: National Data Collection Efforts Underway to Address Some Information Gaps

The Democratic Republic of the Congo: Information on the Rate of Sexual Violence in War-Torn Eastern DRC and Adjoining Countries

Child Fatalities from Maltreatment: National Data Could Be Strengthened

NASA Needs to Better Assess Contract Termination Liability Risks and Ensure Consistency in Its Practices

Child Maltreatment: Strengthening National Data on Child Fatalities Could Aid in Prevention

Combating Terrorism: Additional Steps Needed to Enhance Foreign Partners' Capacity to Prevent Terrorist Travel

Antibiotic Resistance: Data Gaps Will Remain Despite HHS Taking Steps to Improve Monitoring

Tax Gap: Complexity and Taxpayer Compliance

Influenza Pandemic: Lessons from the H1N1 Pandemic Should Be Incorporated into Future Planning

American Samoa and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands: Employment, Earnings, and Status of Key Industries Since Minimum Wage Increases Began

Tax Administration: Information on Selected Foreign Practices That May Provide Useful Insights

The Singapore Way

Source:McKinsey report: How the world's best performing school systems come out on top

Related:

If Singapore has one thing to teach America, it is about taking governing seriously, relentlessly asking: What world are we living in and how do we adapt to thrive. “We’re like someone living in a hut without any insulation,” explained Tan Kong Yam, an economist. “We feel every change in the wind or the temperature and have to adapt. You Americans are still living in a brick house with central heating and don’t have to be so responsive.” And we have not been

Improving Government Performance- You do whatever it takes

When it comes to failing schools, Sir Michael expresses impatience. When a public school is failing — not just going through a rough patch, but also systematically failing to educate its students — he says there is only one question the authorities should consider: “How do I get these children a good education as fast as possible?”

“Once you have the answer to that question, you just do it,” he said. “If it’s close the school, you close it and move the children into a better one. If there are no better schools nearby, close it and replace it with another on the same site. But you do whatever it takes.”

-Imported From Britain: Ideas to Improve Schools

Related;
Education Reform Lessons from England

'Deliverology' is the way forward, says Barber

US Education Delivery Unit

Tony Blair on Deliverology

Blair talks about the Delivery Unit as one of his successes in his memoir and gives credit to Sir Machael Barber.

'It was relatively a small organizatiion, staffed by civil servants but also outsiders from McKinsey, Bain and other private sector companies, whose job was to track the delivery of key government priorities. It would focus like a laser on an issue, draw up a plan to resolve it working with the department concerned, and then performance-manage it to a solution. It would get first-class data which it would use for stocktakes that I took personally with the minister, his key staff and mine, every month or so. The unit would present a progress report and any necessary action would be authorised....

We also created the Strategy Unit, to look ahead at the way policy would devlop, the fresh challenges and new ideas to meet them. That also was higly successful. It allowed us to take a medium- and even long-term view of certain issues that were looming but not imminent. Whereas the Policy Unit handled the day-to-day and focused on managing the departments to produce the policies and their implementation that derived from the manifesto or the departmental plans, the Strategy Unit was trying to trying to construct the next policy platform...

In summary, extra money plus system change delivered results...'

Related:
Imported From Britain: Ideas to Improve Schools

“What have all the great school systems of the world got in common?” he said, ticking off four systems that he said deserved to be called great, in Finland, Singapore, South Korea and Alberta, Canada. “Four systems, three continents — what do they have in common?

“They all select their teachers from the top third of their college graduates, whereas the U.S. selects its teachers from the bottom third of graduates. This is one of the big challenges for the U.S. education system: What are you going to do over the next 15 to 20 years to recruit ever better people into teaching?”

Expenditure Tracking in India

The connection between release of funds by the Central Government and actual expenditures for physical inputs by the implementing agencies is
currently, very obscure

We highly recommend the Report of the Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects, the chapter on Expenditure Information Network.

India's Independent Evaluation Office

The Union Cabinet today approved the establishment of an Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) to undertake impartial and objective assessment of the various public programmes and improve the effectiveness of public interventions. This is in pursuance of the Presidential address to the Joint Session of both Houses of Parliament in June, 2009 to establish an Independent Evaluation Office at an arms' distance from the Government to assess the outcomes and impact of the major flagship programmes of the Government of India.

The IEO will be an independent office attached to the Planning Commission under a Governing Board chaired by the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission. It will be funded by the Planning Commission and will have, as its head, a full-time Director General (DG) in the rank and status of Member, Planning Commission. It will have full functional autonomy to discharge its functions. The IEO will also advise the Planning Commission and the implementing agencies in developing appropriate management systems consistent with the evaluation objectives.

Assorted on Obama's Management Agenda

Task Force on Government Performance


From Setting Goals to Achieving Them;

OMB’s budget-setting process is often seen as its primary role, with the organization’s responsibility for improving government’s management and performance taking a backseat. But the Obama administration has made clear that improving performance across agencies is important to it by appointing a chief performance officer for government and re-energizing the management side of OMB.

What Government Can Learn from the Preakness

We therefore recommend that the bill include a limit of five high-priority goals per agency or perhaps a ceiling across government of no more than 100 goals. These are priorities, after all.

Setting Goals for Government: The Senate Can Deliver This Fall


Asking Questions Like the British Do

I remember being struck by the power of the approach that Barber invented when I was working as an official in the British government back in 2001. By asking three sets of difficult but very simple questions, the Delivery Unit changed the way that we thought about our jobs. The three themes were:

What journey are you trying to make in terms of the goal? Where are you now and what’s the destination?
What’s your strategy to get there? Why do you think your interventions will work?
How will you monitor progress as you proceed? Do you have the capacity to adjust your strategy as you go along?

Evaluating Government Employment and Compensation- A Primer

Just released brief from IMF.

Evaluating Government Employment and Compensation
Author/Editor: Clements, Benedict J. , Gupta, Sanjeev . Karpowicz, I. , Tareq, Shamsuddin

Related:
Wage Policy and Fiscal Sustainability in Benin

Kiribati: 2009 Article IV Consultation - Staff Report

Kenya: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix

MDG T-Shirt Ideas

Source: you know from whom

Making Sense of Government Report Cards

Government agencies increasingly are putting out report cards on cars, schools, restaurants and other offerings to help consumers sort among them. But such grading systems can emphasize simplicity over precision, and decisions about the criteria they use have a significant impact on results. Plus, using letter grades risks lumping together very different performers. In Los Angeles County, 98% of restaurants got A's or B's last year for health safety....

Different agencies view the grades differently, and that view affects how they construct the grading curve. Florida education officials keep changing their formula for rating schools "to continue to raise the bar" so schools keep seeking progress, says Juan Copa, bureau chief for research and evaluation for the state Department of Education.

The health departments in Los Angeles County and New York view A grades as an incentive for restaurants that improve their practices so they can lure in more customers; therefore, there aren't plans to make it harder to ace the test.

Grading systems inevitably include some criteria while excluding others, and require that choices be made about how to weight those that are included.

-Report Cards for Consumers Don't Always Make the Grade

Assorted on Value Added by Teachers

the value-added debate in education policy

What Makes a Great Teacher Great?

How the teachers were evaluated

Putting Teachers to the Test

Teacher Evaluation and Test Scores

The newspaper takes on the two L.A. sacred cows—teachers and unions—and lives to print again

Using Test Scores To Out Ineffective Teachers

Capital Investment Diagnostic

An interesting new paper from World Bank- A diagnostic framework for assessing public investment management;

Summary: This paper provides a pragmatic and objective diagnostic approach to the assessment of public investment management systems for governments. Since weaknesses in public investment management can negate the core argument that additional fiscal space allocated to public investments could enhance future economic prospects, attention to the processes that govern public investment selection and management is critical. The paper begins with a description of eight key "must-have" features of a well-functioning public investment system: (1) investment guidance, project development, and preliminary screening; (2) formal project appraisal; (3) independent review of appraisal; (4) project selection and budgeting; (5) project implementation; (6) project adjustment; (7) facility operation; and (8) project evaluation. The emphasis is placed on the basic processes and controls (linked at appropriate stages to broader budget processes) that are likely to yield the greatest assurance of efficiency in public investment decisions. The approach does not seek to identify best practice, but rather to identify the "must have" institutional features that would address major risks and provide an effective systemic process for managing public investments. The authors also develop a diagnostic framework to assess the main stages of the public investment management cycle. In principle, the identification of core weaknesses will allow reforms to focus scarce managerial and technical resources where they will yield the greatest impact. In addition, the framework is intended to motivate governments to undertake periodic self-assessments of their public investment systems and design reforms to enhance the productivity of public investment.

Assorted on Sectoral MTEFs- Education

Education Sector MTEF- Vietnam

Education Financial Planning in Asia
A series of case studies on Implementing Medium-Term Expenditure Frameworks in 6 countries -- the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Thailand and Viet Nam

MTEF for Developing a New Education Strategy- Lesotho

MTEF Portal - UNESCO

Performance, the Upper Level in Management as Part of an MTEF

PFM in MENA- what's the value for money of 407 billion dollars

A new report from the World Bank "Public Financial Management Reform in the Middle East and North Africa: An Overview of Regional Experience" surveys the experience of the region on the topic of public financial management reform.

According to the most recent World Bank data, governments throughout the MENA region spent approximately $407 billion dollars in 2007 in delivering their policy, regulatory and service functions.

Related:
Executive Summary
Country Cases

PFM Efficiency gains in Egypt

one percent efficiency gain in Egypt’s budget for 2009 would yield $637 million dollars, enough resources to build 40,000 schools, pave 4,500 kilometers of highway, or recruit an additional 600,000 doctors.

- "Public Financial Management Reform in the Middle East and North Africa: An Overview of Regional Experience"

Check list for ensuring value for money of public spending?

British Treasurer George Osborne issued details of the 'process and principles' that will underpin the Spending Review;

-Thinking innovatively about the role of government in society;
-Taking the difficult decisions to reduce the deficit collectively as a Government; and
-Consulting widely using all available talents to deliver a stronger society as well as a smaller state.

It also lists a check list of criteria for evaluation public spending-

• Is the activity essential to meet Government priorities?
• Does the Government need to fund this activity?
• Does the activity provide substantial economic value?
• Can the activity be targeted to those most in need?
• How can the activity be provided at lower cost?
• How can the activity be provided more effectively?
• Can the activity be provided by a non-state provider or by citizens, wholly or in
• partnership?
• Can non-state providers be paid to carry out the activity according to the results
• they achieve?
• Can local bodies as opposed to central government provide the activity?

Related:
How the UK Will Wield the Razor;

The first is that there is too much emphasis on efficiency gains as the source of savings, whereas the focus should have been primarily on program cuts. Thus the number one objective of the new “strategic approach to spending” outlined in the government’s document is a “step change in the drive for efficiency and value for money in the public sector” – with specific mention of operational efficiencies, contract renegotiations, benchmarking and the maximization of collective buying power. Substantial quick reductions in public expenditure can, however, only come about by eliminating or scaling back whole programs...

One notes in this context that the nine criteria which ministries will be asked to apply in reviewing their expenditure are not as single-mindedly focused on the identification of program cuts as was the case with the six tests applied in the Canadian program review process, but instead wander into the areas of improving the targeting and effectiveness of programs. To be fair, the government document does mention welfare spending as a key focus of the spending review, and this is very important. But overall, there needs to be a much greater focus on program review.

Hidden Wealth of Nations

The Hidden Wealth of Nations by David Halpern
Table of Contents
Preface and Introduction.
Chapter One: Prosperity and wellbeing.
Chapter Two: Not getting along.
Chapter Three: The politics of virtue.
Chapter Four: Fairness and Inclusion.
Chapter Five: Power and Governance.
Chapter Six: Conclusion.

Effective Habits of Budget Advisors

The role of the budget advisor is a complex and challenging one. Developing countries have become much more discerning and demanding in their requirements for technical assistance. More and more they rely on their neighbours and peers to fulfil this role. At the same time, competition among providers of assistance has increased. Against this background, an effective advisor needs to have not only outstanding technical skills and broad international experience but also patience, persistence, resilience, balanced judgment, and diplomatic skills.

- Reforming Fiscal Institutions: The Elusive Art of the Budget Advisor

Planning Commissions should disappear as countries develop?

South Africa I guess is an exception- their recent green paper on the newly established Planning Commission;

What will the role of National Planning Commission be?

* Lead the development (and periodic review) of a draft Vision 2025 (“South Africa Vision 2025”) and long –term national strategic plan for approval by Cabinet (first plan 2010)
* Lead investigations into critical long term trends under the supervision of the Minister in the Presidency for the National Planning Commission, with technical support from a Secretariat and in partnership with relevant other parties
* Advise on key issues such as food security, water security, energy choices, economic development, poverty and inequality, structure of the economy, human resource development, social cohesion, health, defense capabilities and scientific progress
* Assist with mobilizing society around a national vision and other tasks related to strategic planning
* Contribute to reviews of implementation or progress in achieving the objectives of the National Plan
* Contribute to the development of international partnerships and networks of expertise on planning

Related:
Development of central fiscal institutions;

Planning ministries are quite common in developing countries, but become less common as countries develop. Across the world, there has been a shift from traditional detailed planning, as reflected in 5-year plans and similar instruments, towards strategic coordination. This coordination is increasingly done by finance ministries or by prime ministers’ offices. This is often accompanied by a gradual integration of planning, strategy development and budgeting into a single, coordinated process, and a unified, strategic budget document. Planning ministries were often involved in project preparation, but this function is shifted to line ministries as their capacity develop

Fiscal Risks: Sources, Disclosure and Management
Ministries of Finance in Small, Developing Economies – Their Role and Structure

South Africa: Restructuring of the Ministry of Finance: A Case Study

OECD vs Fund's Relationship Management

OECD (2008) compares OECD peer reviews with IMF Board discussions and describes differences in focus, in methods of analysis and consequently, in the nature of interactions. The IMF process is characterized as a higher frequency exercise with a shorter-term focus and notes that the country is not necessarily expected to endorse the policy recommendations of a surveillance report, nor does it have much latitude to change or remove topics from a Staff Report. The OECD, on the other hand, engages in a much more intensive exchange with country authorities, both in missions and at headquarters when finalizing its Economic Surveys. It engages in a full day of discussions with the authorities joined by officials from other countries who contribute to the debate with their policy experience, after which the Secretariat works with the country subject to peer review over the course of a full day to finalize the document for publication. Thygesen acknowledges that this buy-in may result in a reduction of clarity in issues or key messages in the report. He also suggests that the peer review process only works well if there is a high and matched level of expertise brought by country representatives around the table so that the authorities undergoing the peer review can truly benefit from the discussion. OECD (2007) discusses the prerequisites of value sharing, mutual trust and credibility in the process adding that the peer review is as effective as the “peer pressure” stemming from the reviewer countries, and the willingness of the reviewed country to accept it

-A Comparative Study on Relationship Management