Public Sector Governance and Accountability Series: Budgeting and ...

144 Anwar Shah and Chunli Shen
Outcome—progress in achieving program objectives
Impact—program goals
Reach—people who benefit or are hurt by a program.
As a by-product of the information provided by the results-based chain,
performance budgeting can also yield useful indicators of the efficiency and
quality of government operations. Here are a few examples of such indicators:
Quality—measures of service such as timeliness, accessibility, courtesy,
and accuracy
Client satisfaction—rating of services by users
Productivity—output by work hour
Efficiency—cost per unit of output.
In comparison with traditional line-item budgeting, performance
budgeting allows for more flexible use of fiscal resources and shifts the focus
from inputs to results (see an example of a performance budget in box 5.1).
A performance budget focuses on the results to be achieved.With its program
structure, the performance budget changes the focus of discussion from
detailed line items to the broader objectives and performance of public
Program objectives
Improve quantity,
quality, and access
to education
services
Inputs
Educational spending by
age, gender, urban/rural;
spending by grade level, and
number of teachers, staff,
facilities, tools, books
Intermediate inputs
Enrollment, student−
teacher ratio, class size
Outputs
Outcomes
Impact
Reach
Achievement
scores,
graduation
rates, drop-out
rates
Literacy rates,
supply of skilled
professionals
Informed
citizenry, civic
engagement,
enhanced
international
competitiveness
Winners and
losers from
government
programs
Source: Shah 2005.
FIGURE 5.1 Performance Budgeting Results Chain: An Application
in Education