ABSTRACT
Organisations that operate in the traded sector of the economy have a range of measures available to evaluate their performance. Such measures include profit, market share and a range of financial ratios such as solvency and productivity ratios. The need for performance review has long been recognised in local government. As far back as 1972 the Bains committee advised setting up a specialist performance review sub-committee to complement the work of the policy and resources committee in achieving corporate objectives. Performance review was also considered in the Layfield report on local government finance published in 1976. There is little point in a council trying to assess its performance unless it has some idea what it is trying to achieve. Without some kind of policy perspective, performance review is liable to become a meaningless bureaucratic chore. Armed with their statutory powers the Audit Commission has been much more vocal than the Accounts Commission in calling for performance review procedures.
