ABSTRACT
Action programmes are not used exclusively in planning-programming-budgeting system (PPBS). They are a very useful standard tool of management that can be used for reorganisation schemes, policy changes, economy measures, new administrative procedures, and so on. A particular value of the action programme discipline relates to timing. The cycle then begins again: revising programme structure; refining objectives; assessing performance and impact; assessing resources; fixing goals and converting them into action programmes; costing the programmes in a five-year revenue expenditure forecast; and, finally, producing a detailed programme budget for the new first year. In programme planning it is essential that the priorities fixed should be projects that can be carried out in practice: otherwise the resources should be allocated elsewhere. The detailed programme budget for the first year of the five-year programme marks the end of the first PPBS cycle.
