Integrating Evaluation and Budgeting

Comments were presented on the concept of an integrated central budget process, the reasons why there is not an integrated central budget, and a possible course of action which might enable Government to develop such a process. GAO believes that the real strength of a unified budget process lies in its power to force decisions on the allocation of scarce resources. Assuming that the strength of a unified and centralized budget process can be maintained, there is a need to consider how to remedy its several weaknesses. Specifically, what the system lacks is a flow of analytical information which reaches decisionmakers at the time and in the form best suited to support them in making resource allocations and other policy judgments. Efforts to accomplish this, however, have thus far failed. One evident impediment lies in the fact that those in an operating agency who are charged with the function of evaluation and analysis are commonly housed in an organizational entity which is separate from those charged with resource allocation. Another impediment is that the budget process functions on a rigid annual cycle, whereas, evaluators are rarely able to predict the time requirements of an analysis with confidence because of the many unknowable problems which will occur. GAO believes that the simplest solution to the problem of organizational linkage between those responsible for budgeting and evaluation is to combine them into a single organizational unit. If it later becomes evident that the organizational linkage is creating more problems than it is solving, then other avenues should be explored. As with organizational separation, there seems to be a reasonable answer to the problem of conflicting perceptions of time. A monitoring system, which is a joint effort between the budgeteers, the evaluators, and the policy development staff, could be designed that is capable of providing current, reliable information on certain key evaluative variables which are likely to be of continuing interest. Finally, GAO understands that the Nation's economic problems will not be solved quickly and painlessly by a single set of easily explained actions. They can only be overcome by a carefully developed and necessarily complex long-term strategy, diligently implemented over a number of years.