Business of Government: Meaningless reporting, quiet policy quitting, Yes Minister, and more

Business of Government: Meaningless reporting, quiet policy quitting, Yes Minister, and more
Filling out forms correctly is not always an effective performance measure. (Image: Alex Burton)
Jem Traylen
Auditor general issues another performance reporting wake-up callTwo years ago, auditor-general John Ryan issued a landmark report, “The problems, progress and potential of performance reporting”. The title was quite tactful, given it was an apparent attempt to shake up the establishment over the deep-set problems in the current state of performance reporting.In that report, Ryan said his office regularly saw public organisations struggle to clearly explain what they did and how well they did it. “It’s not just repo...

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