Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 06

December 2018/January 2019// Canadian Government Executive / 9 EXECUTIVE BRIEF Cultural and management philosophies play a significant role in the design and implementation of performance-based budgeting systems. Different countries are affected by various factors, including gov- ernance, structural, and ideological differ- ences. The various approaches all seek to bring together systems thinking and the interplay between financial and non-finan- cial information (e.g., physical, quality, pro- cess, environmental, and social), ideally to provide a comprehensive view of the driv- ers of performance. UNITED STATES The U.S. Governance Performance and Results Act (1993/Revised 2010) enshrined the linking of budgets to performance in- formation and requires –four-year Strate- gic Plans and annual Performance Reports for review by Congress similar to the Ca- nadian Main Estimates system. The plans have strategic objectives supported by a collection of programs similar to Depart- mental Plans in the Canadian system. In 2016, the U.S. government went a step further and passed the Program Manage- ment Improvement Accountability Act with regulations subsequently published in June 2018. This Act aims to improve program management practices with gov- ernment-wide standards and policies un- der the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The Act also established a govern- ment-wide Program Management Policy Council. Comprised of officials from the twenty-four major federal agencies, each representative serves as the Program Man- agement Improvement Officer (PMIO) of their agency and reports to their agency’s Chief Operation Officer or equivalent. In order to meet the requirements of the Act, the U.S. government has instituted a number of key initiatives: • Senior agency managers meet at least quarterly to examine progress on target- ed agency goals of the department and meet annually on progress on strategic objectives for the department. • Executive performance appraisal plans are linked to organizational goals and outcomes, and provide consequences based on performance. • Federal departments must demonstrate the use of evaluations to direct program improvements, and they are used consis- tently to justify funding requests, manage- ment actions, and legislative proposals. • Consideration is also being given to es- tablishing a national data strategy and the creation of Chief Data Officers. UNITED KINGDOM The United Kingdom launched its Finan- cial Management Reform (FMR) initiative in 2014. Data collection processes have