Australia's public spending on the performance evaluation system and Enlightenment

Paper Keywords: performance evaluation system of public expenditure Inspiration
Abstract: Australia's public expenditure performance evaluation system to improve efficiency in the use of government funds to optimize the structure of public expenditure and achieved good results. At present, China is building a public finance system, and performance evaluation of public expenditure is an important link. Learning and learn from the successful experience of Australia, for our performance evaluation system for the establishment of public expenditure has an important significance.

As China's socialist market economic system has improved steadily and a corresponding framework of public finance are also being gradually established. In speeding up the process of building the public finance system, public expenditure reform has become a key part. How to change China's current fiscal expenditures regardless of cost-effective approach do not speak, how to eliminate the financial expenditure in the "absence" and "offside" phenomenon, control the growing trend of financial expenditure, as we have before us an important issue. In this respect Some Western countries through the performance evaluation of public expenditure, improving efficiency in the use of public funds to control the total expenditures made good results, we should learn from. In this paper, the implementation of Australia's public expenditure as a performance appraisal system cases, indicating that the expenditure of public expenditure management performance evaluation of the important role, as well as to deepen and perfect the reform of public expenditure significance.

First, Australia's public expenditure performance evaluation system introduction
(A) system to form the basic framework of the background and
After World War II, the Australian federal government and various state governments in the role of social and economic life increasingly significant commitment by the Government greatly expanded the scope of economic responsibility, public spending share of gross domestic product soared, leading to government spending rapid growth, the federal and some state governments increasingly severe high deficit and debt problems. To get out of this situation and improve the efficiency of public budget and financial transparency in the use of funds, the Australian Federal Government first mooted the implementation of the financial year from 1997-1998 performance evaluation of public expenditure as the core of the public expenditure budget reform, the formal implementation of the financial year 1999 to 2000 performance evaluation system of public expenditure.

Australia's public expenditure performance evaluation of the scope of focus on the government sectors, evaluation of the content focused on project and program implementation, effectiveness, impact and management. Performance evaluation system of the basic framework is the outcome and output framework (TheOutcomes & OutputsFramework), the main concerned with public sector decision-making and provision of public goods to the community. evaluation of the work system consists of four components: sectoral performance evaluation, project evaluation and other evaluation and performance audit. performance evaluation of public expenditure by the Australian Federal Department of Finance (DOFA) responsible.

(B) performance evaluation of public expenditure work in the specific implementation steps
1, the development of sector development objectives. Australia's public spending is the first step of performance evaluation of various government departments to develop business development objectives, but also the performance of various departments planning. Sectoral development objective is the preparation of departmental budgets and an important basis for the annual performance plan, by the Cabinet, Treasury and government departments to formulate. Contents include: identification of sector responsibilities and the ultimate development goals, assess the resources required to achieve targets and technologies that may affect the achievement of objectives considering the uncertain and so on.

2. Prepare annual performance plans, the design performance evaluation indicators. Government departments according to their career goals to prepare annual performance plans. Annual performance plans and departmental budgets are closely linked, mainly including: Department for the year can be specific, quantifiable performance objectives to complete target resources needed, strategies, methods and processes, performance development goals and objectives of the relationship between departments, agencies within the management objectives (manpower training, etc.) affect the target completion of the various potential factors, the time and form of performance appraisal arrangements and so on.

Since the purpose of the special nature of public expenditure and the benefits achieved by multiple factors, making public spending can not simply measure the costs, benefits, and the relationship, therefore, a direct evaluation of effectiveness of public expenditures more difficult. To solve this problem, the Australian designed a sets of performance evaluation indicators to measure achievement of performance targets government departments and the level of efficiency. Performance Evaluation Index is based on the department before the development of performance objectives to design, mainly includes two aspects: (1) sector development goals ( outcomes) indicators. the main goal is evaluation of the effectiveness of sector development indicators, (2) sector output (outputs) of performance indicators. is mainly used to reflect the government sector to the community to provide public goods (services), quantity, price and quality . output indicators by the Federal special funds (administereditems) performance indicators (mainly to illustrate the use of federal allocation of special funds) and the departmental capital expenditure (departmentalitems) performance indicators (mainly to illustrate the use of departmental capital expenditure) of two parts.

3. Preparation of the annual performance evaluation of public expenditure reports. In a financial year end, the government departments must prepare and submit the department's annual report on performance evaluation of public expenditure to provide basic information on performance evaluation. Contents include: program performance during the year indicators and the actual implementation of the contrast with the previous year comparison of the achievement of performance indicators, performance targets for unrealized description and remedial measures, the evaluation of the annual performance plan, performance targets of the adjustment is not feasible recommendations on the report the quality of performance information provided and other issues need to explain.

4. Performance evaluation carried out to assess the financial efficiency of capital use. The Australian Parliament and the Treasury Department responsible for the performance of various government departments in the evaluation of public expenditure work. First be submitted to the Ministry of Finance departments to review the performance appraisal report, and reported to Parliament for endorsement. Appraisals mainly are: the completion of performance objectives, performance goals are met and whether the resources used by the matching of the expenditure is reasonable, the credibility of performance information and scientific evaluation methods, and so on. evaluation results will be fed back to departments, and strategic objectives as the next financial year and budget arrangements for reference.

5. Performance audit. Performance audit by the audit departments of various government departments and activities of economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the regular auditing, efficiency auditing and project performance is divided into two types of audits. In which the main check the efficiency of individual audit or institution to perform its functions or activities of the program, and evaluation activities of the economy and efficiency. project performance audit scope is narrower than the efficiency of the audit, only the assessment of federal agencies in the management of economy, efficiency and effectiveness, the main considerations for individuals management functions. Australian National Audit Office as an independent government department responsible for the performance of audit work.

(C) performance evaluation of public expenditure in Australia's points rating system
Public Expenditure in Australia since the introduction of performance appraisal system, for controlling government spending, higher public expenditure allocation and efficiency has played a significant role in promoting. Examine its implementation, at least in the more successful doing the following:
First, the system design and implementation of Laws to abide. Australian Federal Government in 1996-1999 successively promulgated a series of areas involving public sector Laws, such as the 1996 <<Labor Relations Act ">, 1998 The <<budget statements integrity Law "" 1999 year <"Public Service Law">, in addition to a number of new bills introduced to replace the old legal framework, such as the <<financial management and integrity of the Law >>,<< General Audit Law "> so replacing the <<Audit>>. The introduction of these laws and regulations, public expenditure for the Australian Government has introduced performance appraisal system provides legal protection, so that evaluation of the effectiveness of public spending to ensure that there are beginning method-based.

Secondly, the design of performance evaluation indicators for the assessment of the feasibility of providing public expenditure efficiency. Performance indicators in the sector development objectives, resource allocation and sector output as a bridge between the play, it had become more abstract and specific performance objectives operationalization of, and through the completion of assessment indicators, you can achieve the evaluation of public expenditure efficiency.

Again, the Australian Auditor-General Audit Law establishes the independent status of both the Audit Commission is an independent government, but also independent of the parliamentary institutions, to avoid a performance audit of the interference by government departments to ensure the objectivity and impartiality of the audit findings sex.

On the other hand, due to the work performance evaluation of public expenditure in Australia is also still the exploratory stage, so inevitably there are some shortcomings: First, the evaluation work in the main body of basic to all departments, and the lack of effectiveness of the various departments of the evaluation of overall expenditure, therefore can not grasp the higher level government expenditure structure of the macro-adjustment.

Second, the evaluation results also failed to better participate in the conduct of budgetary allocation. Although the Australian government has been trying to establish the evaluation results and the budget allocation system linked to the budget, but there are still many departments do not attach importance to the use of evaluation results, in the development of departmental budgets, allocation of the time did not consider the evaluation results.

Second, the performance evaluation system of public expenditure in Australia on the Reform of Public Expenditure and Reference
Compared with the reform of fiscal revenue, China's public expenditure reform has lagged far behind. Inefficient financial expenditures, serious waste, which has long re-entry of light sticks, lightly expenditure efficiency and soft budget constraint and other defects related. Therefore, to accelerate public Expenditure reform is imperative. In the whole process of reform of public expenditure, public expenditure performance evaluation is an important part.

(A) Establishing performance evaluation system of public expenditure on the practical significance
1. China's fiscal expenditure will help control the growing trend. Through the establishment of performance evaluation system of public expenditure, the functions of government departments and financial resources and business scope and scale of the supply link, change the levels of government funding every year and fiscal competition , competition index, bargaining, and how much to spend to how much the practice of spending regardless of the cost, so that government departments effectively establish "effectiveness" of the concept of scientific definition of the scope of public expenditure, improve the effectiveness of public spending in order to keep control of public spending growth trend. reposted elsewhere in the Research Papers Download http://www.hi138.com 2. Conducive to deepening the reform of the budget. At present the reform of the department budget has been basically put in place, the next step of reform should be based on the existing implementation of performance budgeting in order to further improve budget management, to maximize effective use of finances to achieve the ultimate goal. The core content of performance budgeting is to establish the performance evaluation system of public expenditure, the "performance" concept introduced to the budget approved in the past. the financial sector can be based on performance evaluation of the results of previous years to assess the "performance" and "invest" the relationship between the approved business sector to achieve its desired functions and size of the budget. completely change the weight distribution of the past, light performance and budget approved by the drawbacks of too arbitrary and subjective, to improve the scientific nature of the budget approved, and further deepening of budget reforms.

3. Help to improve the transparency of public expenditures, strengthening public expenditure monitoring. Before the public learned that some government departments can only get the number of financial allocations, and for a department is how to use the financial resources to achieve its functions, and how efficient use of funds, etc. unknown. public expenditure performance evaluation system is established so that all sector spending and the "performance" link, the department's annual performance plan to reflect a particular year by the department to provide public goods goals, and performance evaluation through the end of the year, the department implementation of the plan made public performance, which will help the community to provide more useful information, so the public can not only understand the administrative processes of government departments, investment funds and use the number of people, but also by comparing the performance of different departments and the performance of the same department, different years, to fully understand and monitor the use of public funds and their effectiveness, so that improved transparency of public expenditures.

(B) relevant policy recommendations
1. China's national conditions and establishing performance evaluation system of public expenditure to be phased, step by step to. First of all, the establishment of performance evaluation system of public expenditure must conform to China's national conditions. As a developing country, China's industrialization, the market level is not high, the level of productivity relatively low, relatively weak economic base, infrastructure is not perfect. This situation determines the need for government intervention in our area much broader than in other developed countries, the Government's public expenditure involved in the process of social reproduction in all fields and all aspects of the scope of public spending than in many developed countries to be wide. Thus, while learning from foreign experience, but also according to the characteristics of China's socialist market economy and the process came from the theory and practice of performance evaluation of public expenditure needed to carry out a system to resolve aspects of construction and methodology of many problems. In addition, public expenditure performance evaluation system is established can not be achieved, but should be phased, step by step to carry out. First, some units may choose to attempt to project performance evaluation, and achieved certain experience, On this basis, these units can be used as performance evaluation of the pilot departments, and so have a more mature experience, and then fully implemented.

2. Public Expenditure Performance Evaluation System to speed up the Research. In China, public expenditure performance evaluation system for Research is just beginning, but as a basic performance management of public expenditure techniques, performance evaluation system is to implement the performance evaluation of public expenditure and the key premise of the work. Therefore, at this stage must accelerate Research in this area, so as to establish appropriate performance evaluation of public expenditure system. performance evaluation system should be the basic principles of evaluation, evaluation criteria, information systems and other elements:
First, the basic principle. Public expenditure performance evaluation should follow the following principles: (1) a comprehensive system of principles. Covering a wide range of public spending and varies, determine the effectiveness of public spending is more complex to measure, both economic and social benefits also includes short-term benefits and long-term benefits, as well as indirect benefits and direct benefits, etc., which requires all of those elements must be considered, a comprehensive measure of social welfare can be drawn from the comprehensive performance evaluation to achieve maximum results. (2 ) the principles of diversity. public expenditure from production, construction, administrative management to science, education, infrastructure and other aspects, its performance also showed a diversity of forms, which require different types of public spending when evaluating , in addition to other basic standards to follow, but also take full account of their differences, select the appropriate evaluation criteria and indicators. (3) qualitative and quantitative principles. As the complexity of the nature of public spending, simple to use quantitative or qualitative analysis approach to the evaluation of expenditure efficiency, it is difficult to get accurate, fair outcome, therefore, should be used in the actual evaluation of the combination of quantitative and qualitative indicators of the principle, because the incident, with the time the system should be.

Second, the evaluation index system design. Evaluation index system is the core of the evaluation system, in the design of evaluation, they need to consider the economic indicators, social indicators should also be considered. We can learn from the experience in Australia, according to science, the overall , general principles of comparability and to design operational evaluation. for different types of expenditure can be divided into special fund performance indicators, performance indicators of basic expenses, the expenditure for different actors, the performance indicators can be divided into departments and units performance indicators and project performance indicators.

Third, the evaluation standard system designs. Evaluation criteria are the evaluation criteria and criteria, which directly determines whether the result of objective and fair evaluation. Evaluation criteria should be based on national legislation and policies as the basis, in accordance with due consideration to fairness and efficiency, general comparable, easy-to- operation, the widespread use of the principles and differential treatment to the design. evaluation criteria and evaluation index system should match the reasonable criteria for the classification categories.

Fourth, the establishment of information system. For the evaluation of effectiveness of public spending needs to take full advantage of the various departments, various types of input and output information. Australia's public spending on the premise of performance appraisal is the use of advanced information processing technology, and establish Performance evaluation of public expenditure information database, to provide critical evaluation of the technical support. We should make the study of Australia in the information access, aggregate, transform and analyze the experience and realize the modernization of financial management and information technology, to establish China's public expenditure Performance evaluation of the information support system.

3. The career development objectives into departmental budgets. Sectoral development goals represent the future direction of the current preparation of departmental budgets is the prominent problems in the sector development objectives reflect the lack of clarity, the experience of budgeting decisions with a clear color, the budget the preparation of the scientific criteria to be met with a big gap there between. We should learn from Australia's experience in the sector development objectives of the budget to add the content, the supply of funds and sector development objectives linked to ensure that funds the use and conduct of the business development goals are closely around to arrange in order to improve efficiency in the use of financial resources to ensure the smooth realization of its functions, departments, and fully meet the needs of the community.

4. Increase in the sector in the annual performance report. Require departments in the preparation of the accounts must also prepare annual performance reports, to illustrate the development department of the annual completion of the objectives, the use of funds and provide other relevant information. Year performance audit report should be submitted to the financial sector and report to National People's Congress, but also to the public regularly.

5. Conduct performance audits. Performance audit of public expenditure is that an important part of the whole process, through performance audits will help improve the scientific decision-making, and give full play to the supervisory role, but also help strengthen expenditure management and fiscal expenditure to improve efficiency. Therefore, the performance audit is the need to carry out our audit of audit institutions in the form, should be included in the content of national audit institutions in their work. Australian National Audit Office as an independent unit responsible for carrying out the performance of the government audit of public spending, which by the financial sector , the audit department and authorities at different levels, different departments and system monitoring evaluation system we can learn from. Links http://www.hi138.com Research Papers Download