Article – BusinessDesk

April 28 (BusinessDesk) – Finance Minister Bill English is seeking a detailed plan by June 30 to improve how the government spends money on policy advice after a review found there were inadequate measures for the quality and efficiency of the $520 million …

English cracks whip on policy spending review

April 28 (BusinessDesk) – Finance Minister Bill English is seeking a detailed plan by June 30 to improve how the government spends money on policy advice after a review found there were inadequate measures for the quality and efficiency of the $520 million spent annually on such advice.

The Treasury, State Services Commission and Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet are coordinating the plan, and will be responsible for ensuring state sector agencies implement it.

The review did not recommend specific cuts to policy advice spending, seeking instead to bring more coherence and measurement to future policy-making. “It is vital that the Government receives high quality and cost effective policy advice,” said English. “Providing policy advice is a core part of what the public service does and it affe

cts how public money is spent, how the Government operates and what future public services will look like. The review made a total of 36 recommendations, including the need to set clear policy priorities and implement more effective information-sharing across government agencies.

In 2010/11, policy-related appropriations across government agencies amounted to more than $880 million – up from about $510 million in 2003. However, some of these appropriations were used for non-policy outputs, leaving actual policy spending at just over $520 million, according to the review.

“Although this spending on policy advice represents less than 1 per cent of the Government’s $70 billion in total annual spending, it critically shapes the Government’s wider policy programmes and strongly influences New Zealand’s wider economic performance and social outcomes,” said State Services Minister Tony Ryall in a statement.

The Review of Expenditure on Policy Advice was chaired by former Treasury secretary Graham Scott, and panel members were former secretary of the Department of Human Services at Victoria University, Patricia Faulkner, and Commerce Commission member Pat Duignan.

Scott and Duignan worked closely together at the Treasury in the 1980’s and early 1990’s on the economic reform agendas of the time.

(BusinessDesk) 10:53:46

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