Link between impact, quality, performance measurements and financial information

For making administrations not only more efficient but also more effective, activities and their costs should be closely linked to strategic outcomes and broader policy objectives. A monitoring with restricted focus on financial aspects in order to assess success of public services and political programmes is not enough. To reach a holistic view on success, it is more important to consider financial ratios interlinked with quality data, impact measurements and other performance indicators. For this reason, a strategic management system requires the integration of both financial and nonfinancial performance information. [1]
This need was also validated by the focus group (policy domain “Social security”). As an example, one interviewee argued that there are missing linked information between the granted aid deliveries and the qualitative implementation by the institutions or care providers.  
Linking performance and outcome measurements to financial information provides information that is more relevant to decision makers. [2]
The need is especially relevant in monitoring and evaluation, but also in the agenda setting and formulation stage.
We were asking a PhD candidate  with the thematic priority on digitalisation in the public sector in an interview, which experiences he gained during his work on use cases in the context of smart cities. He answered, that he was deeply shocked by the fact how low the information level of public administrations is, regarding their main tasks, services and societal outcomes. This leads to the point, that public administrations, before they want to link financial and nonfinancial information, quite generally first need to collect the relevant data (see also Need: Ensure availability of (real-time) information and knowledge), which can be integrated in a holistic interlinked monitoring system.

 

[1]    Kaplan, R., Norton, D. (1992), The Balanced Scorecard: Measures that Drive Performance, Harvard Business Review, 70(1), 71-79.
[2]    Pollanen, R. M. (2016), Linking Strategic Planning and Performance. Measurement in Canadian Public organizations: Does it improve Performance? Financial Management Institute of Canada, http://www.fmi.ca/media/828299/Linking%20Strategic%20Planning%20and%20Performance%20Measurement_R%20Pollanen_March%202016.pdf, retrieved February 7, 2018.
 
Type of content: Needs
Type of need: Informational need
Priority
High
Assessment matrix
 Agenda SettingPolicy Design and AnalysisPolicy ImplementationPolicy Monitoring and Evaluation
Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry & Foods
Economy & Finance
Education, Youth, Culture & Sport
Employment & Social Security
Environment & Energy
Health
Justice, Legal System & Public Safety
Public Affairs
Institutional Questions / Internal Affairs

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