THE MEASURE OF POLICY - EVALUATING THE EVALUATION STRATEGY AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR BUDGETARY CONTROL

This article reports recent research undertaken on the contribution of program evaluation to that parr of the budget process for which the A ustralian public service has carriage. It examines the degree of succe ss which the Labor government's evaluation strategy attained in sewing budget agency information purposes, The research is not conclusive, o nly indicative. Based an two sets of evidence interviews with officers in the Department of Finance(1) and an analysis of survey results on the use of evaluation in the budget - it contends the evaluation strat egy has had only a marginal impact on central budgetary processes. By documenting changes in the approaches of budget officials the article reports the impact of program evaluation on the core function of Finan ce - the provision of policy advice relating to the expenditure priori ties of government.