Read more
David A. Good’s
The Politics of Public Money examines the extent to which the Canadian federal budgetary process is shifting from one based on a bilateral relationship between departmental spenders and central guardians to one based on a more complex, multilateral relationship involving a variety of players.
List of contents
Foreword – Patrice Dutil
Preface
Introduction
Part One: The Changing Politics of Public Money
1. Beyond Spenders and Guardians
Spenders and Guardians
From Old Village to New Town
Beyond Spenders and Guardians
Priority Setters
Watchdogs
Priority Setters and Watchdogs
New Questions
Part Two: The Public Money Players
2. The Guardians of the Changing Role of the Budget Office
Guardians and Budget Functions
Guardians and Budget Components
Guardians and the Budgetary Process
Different Guardians
Guardians Diverging: ‘Let the Managers Manage … Come Hell or High Water’
Guardians and Central Reserves
Guardians Apart
3. Why Spenders Keep Spending
Getting Money
Keeping Money
Spending Money
The Reciprocity of Expenditure Information and Expenditure Increases
Priorities and Allocations, Not Performance and Allocations
4. The Priority Setters at the Centre
The Centre
The Most Important of all Relationships
Priorities, Big and Small
The Prime Minister’s Arms
Priority Setters and Shift Points
5. The Watchdogs: Barks that Bite
Building Credibility on Professionalism and Independence
The Performance Audit: The Audit for All Reasons
Mutual Expectations
Watching Both Spenders and Guardians
The Financial Watchdog and Internal Department Auditors
The Watchdogs and Parliamentarians
Indirect Influence, but Influence
Part Three: The Public Money Processes
6. Fiscal Aggregates: Controlling Totals
Credibility and Uncertainty
The Prudent Economic and Fiscal Outlook
The Prudent Fiscal Framework: Achieving Achievable Targets
Economic Stimulus
The Elastic Fiscal Dividend
Prudence and Its Consequences
Exposing the Fiscal Framework
Containing Aggregates by Making Allocations
7. Budget Allocations
Allocations Types
The Big Fixes
The Big-Ticket Items
The Must Dos
Small Budget Items
Tax Expenditures
Reductions
Reallocations
Budget Allocations Are Incremental
8. Budget Implementation: Financial Management and Efficiency
On Paper
Successfully Implementing the Economic Action Plan
The First Line of Defence
Victims of Conflicting Norms: The Chief Financial Officer
The Second Line of Defence
Victims of the Intractability of Cultural Change: The Comptroller General
On Becoming Players
Part Four: New Prospects for Public Money
9. Parliament and Public Money
Parliament as Watchdog
Shaping Government Spending: The Commons Finance Committee
Approving Government Spending: The Business of Supply
Holding Government Accountable for Spending: The Public Accounts Committee
Realism and Reform
10. Budget Reforms
Budgets and Reforms
‘Rational’ Reform: The Road to Program Budgeting (pre-1962-78)
The Grand Design: Policy and Expenditure Management System (1979-83)
Incremental and Continuous Change (1984-93)
Program Review and Prudent Budgeting (1994-2003)
‘A Continuous Culture of Reallocation’ (2004-6)
Strengthening the Watchdogs: The Federal Accountability Act (2006-8)
Recalibration: Strategic and Operating Review (2007 and onward)
Reflections on Reforms
11. Doing Better with Public Money?
Theory and Practice
Reactive, but with Some Resilience
The Uneasy Balance of Competing Budgetary Objectives
Establish an Expenditure Review Committee of Cabinet
Restore a Treasury Board Secretariat Role in Expenditure Review and Allocation
Link Priorities, Expenditure Programs, and Performance
Institutionalize the Role of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
The Politics of Public Money
Notes
Index
About the author
David A. Good is a professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria.
Summary
David A. Good’s The Politics of Public Money examines the extent to which the Canadian federal budgetary process is shifting from one based on a bilateral relationship between departmental spenders and central guardians to one based on a more complex, multilateral relationship involving a variety of players.
