Value for money and public spending

Norway attaches importance to efficiency and value for money in public spending, especially because of its high overall level. Reasonable guidelines for pursuing efficiency are in place and in some areas, for example tax collection, measures of efficiency show good performance. Information systems are increasingly in place that allow benchmarking of performance, especially across local government, but increased attention to outcome indicators is required as well. But the guidelines are not always followed in practice and the traditional Norwegian reliance on good sense and trust needs to be reinforced with strengthened arrangements for formal evaluation of projects and policies. Lengthening the time horizon for overall budgetary planning could help to improve the longer-term focus on value for money.