A seminar concerning performance-based budget management was held in Shenyang on March 23. Scholars and experts carried out in-depth discussions on major issues such as budget reform.

As the core of performance-based budget management, the formulation of rational performance indicators should take into consideration the integration of input indicators, output indicators, indicators of efficiency, validity indices and indicators of achievement. Ma Caichen, a professor from the School of Economics at Nankai University, said that to improve the design of performance evaluation indicators, we should focus on departments and let other budgeting management institutes and experts participate in the process so as to make more reasonable and comprehensive budget indicators. In addition, we should strengthen the integration of the performance evaluation system and the process of budget-making, discover problems during the budget implementation process through evaluation results and make it a main basis for the budget arrangement of the next year. We should gradually integrate evaluation results, budgeting lay-out and allocation of funds among departments so as to push forward the implementation of performance-based budgeting and allocate public fiscal resources rationally, cautiously and harmoniously.

For the setting of performance-based budget indicators, Yang Zhi’an, a professor from the School of Economics at Liaoning University, said that the indicators should be set according to different departments and industries with a combination of common measures and unique measures. Common measures refer to the performance indicators system universally approved by a specific department and industry while unique measures refer to the indicators formulated according to different departments, industries and expenditure. Experts from universities and institutes should participate in the demonstration of performance indicators formulation to ensure the indicators’ scientific nature.

Yang added that we can draw inspiration from other countries’ regulated performance indicators systems, sound legal protection, thorough mechanisms for performance results application, and sufficient participation of civil and social organizations. On this basis, we should push ahead with research on ways to implement performance-based budgeting in terms of laws and regulations, indicators systems, results application and big data technology, so as to provide theoretical support for the building of modern budget systems.

In other countries, performance-objective management is equipped with a sound legal foundation, a highly effective organizational management framework, and a perfect system of performance-objective setting, tracking, evaluation and application, which improves the transparency of fund utilization and output efficiency. Xiao Peng, deputy dean of the School of Taxation at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that we should establish interdepartmental institutions of performance management, improve the whole cycle of performance management, continuously innovate in management tools, and build a multilevel performance objective system. In addition, when setting performance objectives, we should not only give priority to the time limit and project of performance objectives, but also pay attention to process indicators, continuously improve the database of performance indicators and standards, and strive to build a comprehensive and focused performance indicator system.

Yang added that the establishment of performance-based budget indicators should be safeguarded by the legal system. In addition to the legal protection from the central government, regional governments should provide legal protection for the building of performance-based budget indicators from the perspective of regional regulations. Moreover, we should integrate performance results and administrative accountability and bring the performance results into the government performance appraisal mechanism. We should also combine the performance results with budget external supervision, improve the mechanism for the disclosure of performance-based budget evaluation results, and proactively accept people’s supervision and feedbacks.

Edited by Su Xuan