The Governor left no doubt about where he stands on the issue urging his department heads to focus on their purpose. Must Read Measuring Up , published by Governing Books in Washington, D.C., is a hilarious look at the hot new management technique known as performance measurement. The book is a common sense approach to improve government performance and accountability. The August issue of the American Society of Public Administration's PA Times features a front-page article on Maine's experience to date with implementing performance budgeting. Written by Jody Harris, the article describes the history of the State's initiative and draws some lessons from which others can learn.
Administrative services are often process-oriented.
They provide the infrastructure so that the department's other programs can achieve their goals and objectives. Since administrative functions provide support to other programs to carry out their public purpose, it will only be in rare cases when Administrative Programs have outcome measures. For the most part, Administrative Programs will focus on output and, even more so, on efficiency measures. Measures should be designed to allow decision-makers to evaluate whether administrative services are efficient and effective. If an agency has a trend of high position vacancies, there may be a good reason for it.