Do programme budget mechanisms improve the efficiency of public spending? Elements of theory and empirical data from Cameroon
| Published date | 01 March 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208523231201256 |
| Author | Simon Pierre Onana |
| Date | 01 March 2024 |
Do programme budget
mechanisms improve the
efficiency of public
spending? Elements of
theory and empirical data
from Cameroon
Simon Pierre Onana
University of Yaoundé II, Cameroon
Abstract
This paper sets out to explore the effect of programme budget mechanisms on the effi-
ciency of public spending. To do so, we first conducted an exploratory study among eight
officials involved in the preparation and execution of the State budget. This exploratory
study then enabled us to construct the variables to produce an analytical model. A survey
was carried out among 475 performance chain actors in the central services of 29 min-
isterial departments of the State of Cameroon. The resultsobtained using descriptive sta-
tistics and simple probit regressions suggest that the mechanisms introduced by the
programme budget have a mixed effect on the efficiency of public spending. While, on
the one hand, structuring the budget into programmes, actions, activities and tasks, per-
formance measurement indicators and a priori controls on the quality ofprogrammes
may havea positive effect on the efficiencyof public spending; on the other hand, allocating
appropriations according to expected results and costs and a posterioriinternal and exter-
nal budgetary controls have a negative influence on the efficiency of public spending. The
study recommendsdeveloping the external budgetary controls and introducing internal
controls that focus more on performance rather than consistency.
Keywords
programme budget, bureaucracy, Cameroon, public spending, efficiency, agency
relationship
Corresponding author:
Simon Pierre Onana, University of Yaoundé II, Postbox: 1365 Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Email: onanasimon2003@yahoo.fr
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2024, Vol. 90(1) 185–202
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00208523231201256
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
Points for practitioners
•This paper contains the first scientific analysis of the effects of programme budgeting
mechanisms on the efficiency of public spending in the context of developing coun-
tries in general and a sub-Saharan African country, Cameroon, in particular.
•The results show that the mechanisms introduced by the programme budget have a
mixed effect on the efficiency of public spending.
•The study recommends developing the external budgetary controls and introducing
internal controls that focus more on performance rather than consistency.
Introduction
The economic growth achieved by Cameroon in recent decades is deemed insufficient to
significantly curb poverty. According to Cameroon’s National Statistics Institute, the
Institut National de la Statistique (2015), although positive, Cameroon’s economic
growth, which averaged 3.6% between 2001 and 2007 and 4% between 2007 and
2014, fell short of forecasts. Among the factors put forward to explain this underperform-
ance is the low efficiency of public spending
1
(Banque Mondiale, 2018). To remedy these
shortcomings, the Government of Cameroon has reformed its public finance system by
adopting the programme budget.
2
Previous studies on the programme budget tend to analyse its effects on the rational-
isation of public decision-making (Andréani, 1968), allocative efficiency (Craine and
O’Roark, 2004) and productive efficiency (Melkers and Willoughby, 2001; Poister and
Streib, 1999).
When it was first introduced in the US Department of Defense in 1962, and later in the
federal government, the programme budget was designed as an instrument for rationalis-
ing public spending (Andréani, 1968; Weber, 1978). By improving the flow of informa-
tion, this budgetary system solves many problems and also leads to a rationalisation of
public decision-making (Andréani, 1968; Hawkesworth and Klepsvik, 2013).
Furthermore, the economic literature shows that programme budgets are conducive to
an efficient allocation of resources. Inspired by the theoretical principles of new public
management (NPM), the programme budget makes it possible to switch from a logic
of means to a logic of results (Gilmour and Lewis, 2005; Jordan and Hackbart, 1999).
In terms of productive efficiency, inspired by the collective choice theory and the
incentive theory, the programme budget introduces a budgetary architecture that
exposes state preferences (Cho, 2010; Diagne and Faye, 2018; Llau, 2008).
Two observations can be made from the literature review above. On the one hand, to
our knowledge, no economic studies exist to date that explore the effect of the programme
budget on the efficiency of public spending. Yet, one of the purposes of programme bud-
geting mechanisms is to increase the efficiency of spending, in particular by linking pro-
gramme funding to expected results (Pratolo et al., 2020; Robinson and Last, 2009). On
the other hand, research on the effects of programme budget mechanisms is still scarce in
the context of developing countries in general and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. This
186 International Review of Administrative Sciences 90(1)
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