ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Public sector governance
A national transport ministry measures its rail agency solely on the percentage of trains arriving within five minutes of schedule. Managers begin cancelling slow, poorly connected services and padding timetables to hit the target, while passenger complaints about access rise. Which problem of public sector performance measurement does this best illustrate?
This illustrates gaming and distortion from a narrow target. Managers cancel services and pad timetables to meet the punctuality measure while wider objectives like access suffer, showing why public bodies need balanced measures covering several stakeholder objectives rather than one headline indicator.
- AGaming and distortion caused by a narrow targetCorrect
- BLack of a profit motive making measurement impossible
- CExcessive stakeholder consultation delaying targets
- DFailure to apply the economy measure to inputs
Explanation
A single narrow measure encourages managers to manipulate behaviour to meet the target at the expense of wider objectives, such as access and service coverage. This is target gaming or measure fixation. The problem is not the lack of profit or consultation, and economy of inputs is not the issue described.
Did you get it right without looking?
One question tells you little. A timed set on Public sector governance shows your real accuracy, how long you take and where you lose marks.
More Public sector governance questions
- A state health agency reports to its Minister, who answers to the legislature, which in turn answers to voters at elections. The agency head…
- The Ministry of Education funds a state university, which also serves students, employers and local residents. The ministry wants high gradu…
- The Ministry of Rural Roads in a mid-sized country awards road maintenance contracts worth millions each year. Citizens' groups complain tha…
- A government agency chief executive is told by a minister to award a major IT contract to a named supplier without a tender, citing politica…
- A national audit office reviews a state-owned water utility. It finds that the utility met all legal requirements and spent within budget, b…
- A state-owned water utility's board member learns that the utility has been discharging pollutants above permitted limits, and the minister …