To implement the central government’s "Tight Life" requirements——

　　Local governments strengthen budget performance target management

　　Dong Bijuan, reporter of Economic Daily and China Economic Net

　　The full implementation of budget performance management is the key point and breakthrough point for advancing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities.

Currently, under the impetus of the central government, various localities are actively exploring budget performance management reforms. Budget performance management systems and organizational systems have been initially established, and the scope and level of performance management have been continuously expanded.

However, in the rich practice of local budget performance management reforms, difficulties and challenges have always followed, and problems such as slow progress in individual regions have become prominent. It has become more critical to spend every penny on the blade.

　　Recently, there have been new actions in the reform of budget performance management in many places: Beijing introduced municipal-level department budget performance monitoring and management measures; Liaoning launched a pilot project for comprehensive performance evaluation of lower-level government fiscal operations; Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province introduced municipal-level department budget performance target management Interim Measures...In the context of the government's "excessive life", the reform of budget performance management in various regions has taken faster and more substantial steps.

As this reform continues to deepen, what are the new challenges?

How to do better?

In response to these issues, the Economic Daily reporter interviewed relevant experts and scholars.

　　Expansion and afterburner are more standardized

　　"On September 1, 2018, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on the Full Implementation of Budget Performance Management." This reform is of overall concern and has a significant impact. The financial department actively deepens the reform of budget performance management and advances it in an orderly manner in accordance with strategic planning. The expected results have been achieved." Yu Mingxuan, director of the Policy Science Research Center of Renmin University of China, said that a comprehensive, full-process, and full-coverage budget performance management system has been basically established at the central and provincial levels, and preliminary budgets have been laid down at the city and county levels. Performance management foundation, and continue to advance in depth.

　　Judging from recent practice in various places, the coverage of budget performance management has become wider.

For example, Beijing clearly stated that the monitoring scope of the budget performance monitoring and management mechanism of municipal departments covers all project expenditures of municipal departments' general public budgets, government fund budgets, and state-owned capital operating budgets.

Liaoning incorporated all 305 departmental budget projects and provincial-level transfer payment projects into performance operation monitoring, and for the first time explored the inclusion of the overall performance targets of 559 departments at the provincial level into the scope of performance operation monitoring.

　　Some localities have gradually extended the scope of performance management to government investment funds, government purchase services, government and social capital cooperation (PPP) projects, government financing guarantee institutions and other fields.

For example, Sichuan has issued non-compulsory education schools (canteens, dormitories), municipal areas (sewage, garbage, roads, parking lots) PPP project performance evaluation indicators guidelines.

　　Localities have also continued to increase their efforts in the use of performance evaluation results.

For example, Ningbo Yinzhou District will give priority to the 2020 budget for basic public health service projects with relatively good evaluation results in the key evaluation projects of the previous year; the 2020 budget will be reduced for the relatively general evaluation results for the listing of enterprises and the lawyer service industry subsidy projects The rates are 32.7% and 36% respectively.

　　"Under the impetus of the central government, local governments have actively explored budget performance management reforms. The budget performance management system and organizational system have been initially established, and the scope and level of performance management have continued to expand." said Wang Zecai, director of the Government Performance Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, partly The local government has accumulated successful experience in pre-performance evaluation, third-party performance evaluation, application of performance evaluation results, and the linkage of performance evaluation and performance pay.

　　Depth accuracy needs to be improved

　　It is worth noting that in the rich practice of local budget performance management reforms, problems and challenges have always followed.

In October, the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Finance released the "Circular on the Performance Evaluation of Poverty Alleviation Project Funds in 2019", which reflected some common problems.

For example, the bulletin pointed out that the project evaluation index values ​​were filled incompletely and inaccurately, the project performance indicators were set unreasonably, and individual construction projects did not set indicators reflecting the construction content, timeliness, costs, and benefits.

In this regard, Wang Zecai believes that the current progress of local budget performance management is uneven, and progress is slow in individual regions.

　　Yu Mingxuan said that there are still some difficulties in the reform of budget performance management in various regions, such as insufficient application of performance evaluation results, and weak incentives and constraints of performance evaluation; the professional competence of budget performance management and evaluation personnel needs to be strengthened; Establish a sound budget performance information disclosure mechanism, etc.

　　According to the "Opinions on Comprehensive Implementation of Budget Performance Management" by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, financial departments at all levels must strengthen the review of new major policies and project budgets. If necessary, they can organize third-party agencies to independently carry out performance evaluations, and the results of the reviews and evaluations will be used as budget arrangements. An important reference basis.

At present, when third-party organizations participate in performance evaluation, there are problems such as uneven evaluation quality and the need to improve the professionalism of staff.

　　A staff member of the local finance department responsible for performance evaluation management told reporters: “At present, the number of social institutions competent for performance management consulting services is small, and the ability to provide intellectual assistance in key links such as performance evaluation, performance target review, and performance evaluation is insufficient. At the same time, local The number of experts involved in performance management and able to play a role is limited, and it is difficult to fully meet the needs of all participants for theoretical and business guidance."

　　Work together to enhance the effectiveness of reforms

　　How can we further improve the "performance" of budget performance management reform?

With the continuous expansion of practice, the thinking of insiders has become more in-depth.

At the "2020 China High-Quality Budget Performance Evaluation Forum" held recently, Gao Jinxing, director of the Supervision and Evaluation Bureau of the Ministry of Finance, said that in the current context of prominent fiscal revenue and expenditure, it is particularly critical to spend every penny on the blade. .

The Ministry of Finance attaches great importance to budget performance evaluation, and will promote the rapid development of performance evaluation work from multiple perspectives such as improving performance evaluation regulations and systems, optimizing performance evaluation work mechanisms, promoting self-evaluation and improving quality, and exploring the establishment of a third-party agency supervision system. .

"Performance evaluation has a long way to go. It is necessary to be good at discovering and solving problems, and promote performance evaluation with a high sense of responsibility and mission." Gao Jinxing said.

　　Qin Rongsheng, Dean of the Beijing National Accounting Institute, believes that the full implementation of budget performance management is a key point and breakthrough point in advancing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities.

Especially during the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the implementation of the central government's "excessive life" requirements has made the importance of budget performance management more prominent.

　　Setting up scientific and accurate performance goals is a major difficulty in performance evaluation.

Experts believe that more important than the performance target itself is the working mechanism for preparing the performance target.

"The mechanism determines the quality of performance goals." Liu Wenjun, deputy director of the Budget Review Center of the Ministry of Finance, said that the main responsibility for the preparation of departmental performance goals should be implemented; the linkage mechanism of financial departments, business departments, and professional institutions should be established; internal decision-making and working layers of the department and financial planning should be established Department and business department, project leader and sub-project leader collaborative interaction mechanism.

At the same time, a mechanism for combining performance target preparation and project library construction should also be established.

　　In the face of increasing business needs, third-party organizations should also step up their internal skills.

Liang Chun, the chief accountant of Dahua Certified Public Accountants, believes that third-party organizations need to further build a strong organizational guarantee system in terms of organization setting, staffing and operation management, and build a professional standard system in terms of service procedures and performance indicators. Enhance the effectiveness of budget performance management consulting services.

　　Wang Zecai believes that strengthening performance evaluation capacity building is a long-term, complex, and highly specialized basic system project. It is necessary to cultivate, guide, and standardize the development of independent third-party evaluation agencies as well as build a budget performance evaluation system. Unify "weights and measures"; it is necessary to accelerate the implementation of project life-cycle performance evaluation management, consolidate the budget performance evaluation process design and foundation reengineering, and also strengthen the application of budget performance evaluation results.