1.Introduction
Over the past two decades,enhancing public sector performance has taken on a new urgency in OECD member countries as governments face mounting demands on public expenditure,calls for higher quality services and, in some countries , a public increasingly unwilling to pay higher taxes. To address these challenges , various OECD countries have sought to enhance their public sector performance by adopting a range of new levers and approaches to management, budgeting,personnel and institutional structures.Within government, these have included the introduction of performance measures into budgeting and management, the relaxation of input controls,the delegation of responsibility to line ministries/agencies, and changes in public employment typified by the adoption of contracts for public servants and the introduction of performance-related pay. Examples of institutional change include the creation of executive agencies and the privatisation or outsourcing of the provision of public services. This paper concentrates on attempts by OECD countries to introduce performance or results-based budgeting and performance management.This lever of reform seeks to move the focus of budgeting, management and accountability away from inputs towards results.Managers and/or organisations are given flexibility in order to improve performance and are then held accountable for results measured in the form of outputs and outcomes. The provision of performance information is not an end in itself; rather,its overall objective is to support better decision making by politicians and public servants leading to improved performance and/or accountability,and ultimately,enhanced outcomes for society.The quantity of performance information available to decision makers has substantially increased;however, countries continue to struggle with issues of quality and with ensuring that information is used in decision making. It takes time to develop performance measures and indicators, and even longer to change the behaviour of key actors in the system(politicians and bureaucrats)so that they use this information and develop a performance culture adapted to their particular country. The performance movement is here to stay.The benefits of being clearer inside and outside government about purposes and results are undeniable.But to gain these benefits governments need a long-term approach, realistic expectations,and persistence. This paper looks at the development of performance-based budgeting,management and reporting in OECD countries and identifies the trends, the strengths and the limitations of current approaches and future challenges. First it discusses the wider perspective of government performance.