From the Auditor General’s latest report

Performance reporting by councils remains inadequate. It is focused on inputs and operating activities, and offers little insight into the impact of services and the achievement of objectives.

Specifically, a meta-analysis of 16 performance audits identified the recurring themes of:

  • • ineffective planning and budgeting
  • • inadequate implementation of initiatives and adherence to policies and procedures
  • • weak oversight and monitoring of council activities and outcomes
  • • inadequate attention to addressing persistent performance issues.

These recurring issues are, in part, a by-product of a lack of accountability for performance due to weaknesses in performance monitoring and related information. No council had developed a set of indicators that adequately measured the impact of services and achievement of objectives.

Key issues compromising the effectiveness of performance reporting at councils were:

  • • poorly expressed objectives that cannot be effectively measured
  • • indicators that do not comprehensively cover all aspects of councils’ objectives and key strategic activities
  • • indicators that do not provide balanced information about quality, efficiency and outcomes
  • • a lack of adequate policies for performance reporting
  • • limited training for councillors and staff in performance measurement and management.
  • an over-reliance on limited community satisfaction metrics for assessing services, which do not provide a sufficiently comprehensive and balanced view of performance

Effective performance reporting assures councils are accountable to their local residents and ratepayers for these important obligations. It is critical for demonstrating value-for-money, the achievement of objectives, equitable access to services, and that services are appropriate, of good quality, and cost effective. 

Principles of effective local government performance reporting  

Comprehensive

To be comprehensive, indicators should be relevant to council objectives. Objectives should be clearly expressed, measurable, and there should be a clear nexus between objectives and performance indicators. Performance indicators should also cover all critical aspects of objectives and align with services.

Balanced

Performance indicators should cover the time, cost, quantity and quality of service provision, as well as the outcomes of council activity. A single indicator is typically not able to measure each of these aspects, therefore a suite of indicators is usually required to provide balanced performance information.

Appropriate

Performance indicators should be reported with appropriate context to allow community members to interpret results. Targets, trend data and an explanation of the result should be provided to allow members of the community without technical knowledge to draw meaningful conclusions about the performance of council.

…limited improvement was evident in the quality of the performance statements produced by councils, and that non-financial performance indicators are of limited relevance to ratepayers and residents. The report further noted that councils continue to adopt a ‘compliance-centric’ approach to performance information, and that they have yet to fully implement previous audit recommendations or to produce performance reports that drive council outcomes and accountability by being relevant and appropriate to stakeholder needs.