9
achieve with them. We have to constantly ask ourselves what
do we want to achieve, do we have the means to do so, and
are they properly correlated with what we want to achieve.
Efficiency is what we strive for, not only to cut costs across
the board. And that is precisely what often happened in the
past – if we do not know the standards of performance, or
what to do, how to do it and how much it should cost, and
what is the targeted quality level, then we lack the basis for
good decision-making and management. If the budget is
exceeded, the only thing left is across-the-board cost cut-
ting. And that can not bring good results anywhere, including
the public sector.
Unfortunately, the mission of controlling in the public sector
has not yet been fully recognised in our country. The public
sector has a particular importance for society as a whole,
which bears a special responsibility for the effects produced.
Measuring these effects is almost impossible without con-
trolling, only in this case controlling must be accompanied
by a specific way of thinking and observing. It is necessary
to apply specific procedures and methods so that the public
sector can be effective.
When introducing controlling into the public sector, the
specificities of the mission, objectives, processes and spe-
cificities and heterogeneity of stakeholders need to be taken
into account. Here, the objective is almost never profitability
or increasing market share. Sometimes objectives are not
even completely clearly defined, and need to be specified.
Therefore, it is a rule that this is the primary task of the
controller in the public sector. They have to moderate the
process of determining and formulating objectives all the
way up to their operational execution, which then must be
closely monitored through a specific system of indicators.
The indicators here are almost always a blend of quantitative
and qualitative evaluations of success. Creating the right mix
of indicators along with the standards of performance are
key success factors. This is followed by another important
step – communication about the achieved results with all
holders of responsibility.
Just as the existence and operation of the public sector is
important for any society as a whole, so the monitoring of its
effectiveness and efficiency is necessary and very useful for
the benefit of all stakeholders.
Working with a focus on performance is a very difficult
discipline because the system of public administration is
extremely complex and requires very close communication.
At the heart of everything lies learning and capacity build-
ing, which means that we primarily need to apply specific
knowledge of those who have already gone down this path
before us, and to accept the necessary changes as soon as
possible.
Croatian Minister of
Finance, Boris Lalovac,
reading Controller
Magazine.
