ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter to this book notes an increasing trend for government departments and agencies to publish annual performance reports. These published reports are mostly aimed at politicians, as part of the parliamentary accountability for performance, and at citizens, as part of the public accountability of public service agencies. As well as providing information on financial performance, increasingly performance reports are expected to provide information on what public organizations are achieving with the public monies allocated to them: the results achieved versus expectations. In line with international trends in public service management, there is more of an expectation of a focus on outcomes, that is the changes in conditions, behavior or attitudes arising from departmental and agency activity (Hatry 1999).
