ROLE 4: Encourage or Assist Management:
Practice 4b. Assist management: Assist management in designing, improving, or maintaining performance management systems, or build the capacity of management to do so.
British Columbia Auditor General [Profile]
In the British Columbia (BC) Office of the Auditor General (OAG) a small group of staff has focused its efforts on promoting improved government performance management, often working in an advisory capacity or in a joint effort with management to determine how to improve performance management and accountability. The group spends between 300 and 3,000 staff-hours per year on this practice, depending on the initiatives underway. From 1995-1998 the OAG partnered with the Deputy Ministers Council (the most senior career public servants in the provincial government) to address improved performance reporting (the OAG’s main interest) and improved performance management (the Council’s main interest). This resulted in the publication of three reports under the heading Enhancing Accountability for Performance in the British Columbia Public Sector. In 2002, the OAG was represented on a high level steering committee with government management to develop a consensus on performance reporting principles and criteria, and to develop a program to provide independent assurance of performance reports. This resulted in the March 2003 progress report Reporting Principles and An Assurance Program for BC which described eight performance reporting principles (see Practice 2b. Assure performance reports) and an approach to developing a performance report assurance program. Generally, the tone and language of reports published under the Performance Reporting and Assurance heading have been in keeping with the advisory role played by OAG staff who focus on these issues.
In addition to promoting and assuring good performance reporting, the OAG also audits and comments on other performance management practices, such as an emerging trend toward the use of “performance agreements.” For example, in 2002, the OAG assessed the performance agreements signed between the Ministry of Health Services and British Columbia’s six regional health authorities. These performance agreements hold health authorities “accountable for the delivery of patient care, health outcomes and how health dollars are spent.” Through inquiry, discussion and analysis, the OAG examined the processes used to create the performance agreements, the context of the agreements, and the content, and recommended how the agreements could be improved in the future.
In March 2005, the OAG group on performance management provided further guidance to government management in its report Building Momentum for Results-based Management: A Study About Managing for Results in British Columbia. The report describes the government’s progress in implementing a managing-for-results (MFR) approach and identifies options to further this initiative. Options include identifying an executive sponsor to coordinate and support MFR implementation initiatives across government, and sponsoring “communities of practice” groups to share lessons learned, encourage innovative thinking, and help ease the challenges of transformation. The report also provides practical advice to those working to bring results-based management to their ministries and programs, based on experience from several ministries and programs. Topics include, for example, building capacity through integrating planning and resourcing, using performance information, and reporting publicly.
Reports
|
