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GASB project – project description
Background
The board began its focus on performance measures in 1985 by issuing a resolution encouraging governments to experiment in this area.
In 1987 the GASB issued Concepts Statement No. 1: Objectives of Financial Reporting. This Statement was meant to serve as a guide in making decisions about financial reporting issues. An overriding concern in establishing the objectives for financial reporting was the concept of accountability. Therefore, an important objective in Concepts Statement No. 1 included the clause that states that: "Financial reporting should provide information to assist users in assessing the service efforts, costs, and accomplishments of the governmental entity. This information, when combined with information from other sources, helps users assess the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of government…”
By 1990, the GASB began to publish a series of research reports titled: Service Efforts and Accomplishments Reporting: Its Time Has Come. The series analyzed the state-of-the-art in performance measurement and reporting for twelve service areas of state and local government. Each report included a set of performance measures intended to serve as a starting point for those governments wanting to establish their own performance measures.
1994 the GASB issued Concepts Statement No. 2, Service Efforts and Accomplishments Reporting, which elaborated the GASB’s views about the importance of reporting performance measures as part of the general purpose external financial reporting. In the GASB’s opinion, service efforts and accomplishments information - including both financial and non-financial performance measures - is an essential aspect of the measurement of governmental performance and is necessary for assessing accountability and making informed decisions: "Therefore, to be more complete, general purpose external financial reporting needs to include service efforts and accomplishments information." This Concepts Statement also calls for experimentation and the involvement of management, internal auditors, elected officials and citizens in its process (see para. 71-73).
In 1997 the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provided the GASB with a significant grant to enhance its service efforts and accomplishments research and to address the needs of state and local governments trying to develop and report performance information. This research has resulted in the development of a set of suggested criteria for use in developing external reports on performance information. It will also provide the basis for a staff recommendation on whether the Board should add a project to its active agenda that would commence due process activities that might lead to establishing guidelines for reporting performance information.
In 2000 the Sloan Foundation extended the grant for an additional three (3) years. Products of the grant research will include; additional case studies on the use and effect of performance measures, a report on the results of citizen discussion group sessions, a special report on suggested criteria, and an assessment of the results of experimentation with that criteria.
To learn more about the GASB, please see:
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