For more information, contact Amanda Roggio at the Maine Development Foundation. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the entity that establishes requirements for government audits, is surveying 479 government entities that previously indicated that they use or have developed performance measures. This questionnaire is a follow-up to a survey conducted in 1997 and will document changes in the use and reporting of performance measures and their effectiveness over time. The second questionnaire seeks information about the specific uses being made of performance measures and whether those that stated they were using performance measures are, in fact, actively using them for decision-making. The results will be analyzed and reported to the GASB Board for use in deciding whether to require performance measures as part of external financial reporting.
Several states have performance measures for their state departments on line.
These measures may be useful to help stimulate ideas for Maine State agencies. Measures selected for purposes of evaluating the budget program should be limited to the most important few. It is not necessary, nor is it desirable, that every activity be documented with a separate measure. Measures should be developed that cover the major activities of a program, key policy issues, or an area in which the department wants to improve performance. If you find you are having trouble limiting your measures, it may be that you are placing too much reliance on outputs.