Last updated:
Friday, 8 July 2016
A Higher Performing State Sector that New Zealanders Trust, Delivering Outstanding Results and Value for Money is one of the Treasury's three outcomes.
Through our work in this area we aim to ensure that the state sector delivers value for money in achieving the Government's priorities.
The Treasury's other outcomes are:
The quality of expenditure, regulation and other interventions by State sector agencies has a significant impact on the living standards of New Zealanders. It impacts both directly and indirectly on New Zealand's stocks of financial and physical capital, human capital, social capital and natural capital. Given the significant impact it has, the State sector needs to do the right things in the right ways at the right time and they must be affordable.
The Government has set a challenge for the State sector to make more progress on a number of key results and to deliver better services within lower allowances for new spending.
Meeting this challenge will depend on focusing on government interventions, whether spending, regulation or government ownership, that have the biggest impact on New Zealanders' living standards and that have benefits that outweigh their costs to society. Keeping this focus on effectiveness and efficiency is important, regardless of the fiscal situation. As raising taxes or debt to finance government expenditure and assets has economic costs, we need to make the most of every dollar that is spent.
Our Role
The Treasury's role is to ensure that state institutions deliver sustained improvement in results and in their capability to advance government priorities in the future.
The Treasury's interest in improving State sector performance arises from its combined roles as the Government's lead financial and economic advisor and through both our central agency and performance monitoring roles. Beside the Treasury, the central agency includes:
The shared central agency approach to State sector performance allows greater collective leverage on performance issues. The Treasury has a particular focus on the Crown's overall balance sheet and expenditure.
As a Central Agency, the Treasury works with SSC and DPMC to provide advice on the design of State institutions (the systems and structures of the state sector) and to support, and sometimes lead, changes to these.
The Treasury has an important role to play in providing advice to the government on the economic and financial implications of proposed and existing government interventions. It also has a role to play in supporting agencies to build their financial capability to better deliver results now and in the future. For example, work to strengthen how the government manages its investments and assets includes use of evidence-based tools such as the:
To find out more about the Treasury's objectives and priorities concerning improved State sector performance, please refer to our latest:
How Are We Doing?
For an overview of recent work done by the Treasury relating to State sector performance, see the relevant outcome performance section of our latest:
Research and commentary publications
Treasury Working Papers and Analytical Papers are commissioned as part of our core function in developing and providing advice to the Minister of Finance. Papers relating to the State sector can be found through the Public Sector subject link in the Publications Index.
Speeches
Treasury's senior management, including the Chief Executive, regularly attend speaking engagements where they present on topics related to the Treasury's work programme, including improved state sector performance. Notes from these engagements can be found at Speeches in the Publications section of this website.