This OECD report is produced under the auspices of the OECD Committee of Senior Budget Officials at the request of the Flemish Department of Budget and Finance. The objective of this OECD report is to assess the current performance-informed budgeting practices in Flanders against OECD best practices and propose concrete recommendations to strengthen the approach to performance-informed budgeting in the region.
Performance-informed budgeting is an umbrella term for broad reforms related to both performance budgeting and spending reviews, where the main objective is to increase efficiency and accountability throughout the public sector. OECD countries have been actively strengthening their approach to budgeting in the past decades, with most Member countries having some form of performance budgeting and spending review framework in place.
Since 2014, the Flemish government has undertaken a series of reforms of its budgetary system to better integrate policy development and resource allocation and improve the accountability and transparency of the Flemish public sector. A key element of this reform is the implementation of performance-informed budgeting, which includes both the implementation of spending reviews and performance budgeting. .
This report takes stock of performance-informed budgeting in Flanders. It provides an assessment of its key strengths and highlights where improvements can be made. Based on this analysis, the report concludes with recommendations on how to strengthen the approach to performance-informed budgeting in Flanders.
The report is structured as follows:
Chapter 1 provides an overview of performance-informed budgeting practices in OECD countries.
Chapter 2 takes stock of performance-informed budgeting practices in Flanders and describes the progress made so far.
Chapter 3 provides international comparison and suggestions on how the Flemish framework can be strengthened.
Chapter 4 provides recommendations on how to strengthen the approach to performance-informed budgeting in Flanders.
This report was co-ordinated and drafted by Álfrún Tryggvadóttir (Senior Policy Analyst, Lead Performance Budgeting and Spending Reviews), Indrė Bambalaitė (Policy Analyst) and Titouan Chassagne (Junior Policy Analyst) under the supervision of Jón Blöndal (Head of Division), all from the Public Management and Budgeting Division, Public Governance Directorate, OECD.
The authors would like to thank Koen Algoed, Manuela Vervoort, Koen Vandenweyer, Jens Vermeiren, and Edward Van Sumere, all from the Flemish Department of Finance and Budget, for their valuable contributions and co-ordination throughout the implementation of the project. The authors would like to thank all participants in the fact-finding mission and follow-up calls for their valuable insights. The authors would also like to express gratitude to Elva Bova and Martijn Hoogeland, both from ECFIN Department of the European Commission, for their insights and comments on the report.