Putting Teeth into the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Public Services

Abstract

Formed in 1984 as the successor to the National Council on Governmental Accounting, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) establishes accounting principles for state and local governments. These principles largely dictate the form and nature of the financial information which is annually disclosed by financial officers to elected officials, the public, and the media through a public jurisdiction's annual report. GASB has recently embarked upon a project which could have a profound impact on this public reporting mechanism. Through the fuller disclosure of relevant data on performance, the changes envisioned could also bring greater pressure on governments to provide public services in more efficient and effective ways. In May 1985, a year after its creation, the fivemember GASB board passed a resolution to encourage experimentation by state and local governments in the area of efforts and accomplishments reporting, the accountants' terminology for the economists' indicators. In the newsletter releasing the resolution, GASB stated that research on . . . service efforts . .. may not start for several years . .. (and) there is relatively little information on which to build appropriate (accounting) standards if standards are desirable.... Encouraging experimentation by governmental entities in these matters will make it clear that the GASB considers these projects to be important. Experimentation will prompt in these areas by both the academic community and practitioners. GASB's resolution concluded: GASB will actively seek out those wishing to experiment. Those who are already providing data . .. or who wish to start should contact the GASB director of research.' A number of entities agreed to work with GASB on the project. The City of Wooster, Ohio, with a population of about 20,000 had, since the summer of 1984, been working on a related effort, which the City dubbed its unit cost measurement system. The use of a single city in this article is for illustrative purposes only; many state and local governments have advanced performance reporting systems, some more advanced than Wooster's. The GASB project took on a new dimension in the fall of 1987 when the Board decided to organize a pro-