"Accounting for the Business of Government--New Goals, Old Myths".

• Author: MICHEL, R. GREGORY
• Position: Review

Mosso, David

Public Budgeting & Finance, Winter 1999, pp. 65-74.

This article discusses four key elements of an effective performance management system. Over the past 20 years, state and local governments have moved from cash to accrual accounting systems. The author argues that the next milestones toward the goal of efficient and effective government are performance measurement and performance management. The author criticizes the notion that the measurement of performance for businesses is fundamentally different from the measurement of performance for governments. Typically, profit is considered to be the prime measure of success for businesses, while enhancing the general welfare is considered to be the measurement of performance for governments. The author argues that an appropriate measure of performance for both businesses and governments is to compare the value of outputs to the value of inputs. For a government, this measurement would be to compare the value of the government's goods and services...