Canadian Policy and Expenditure Management Systems and New Zealand's Strategic Result Areas: A Comparative Study

In 1989, the Canadian government declared its Policy and Expenditure Management System (PEMS), an integral part of Canada's public management system, that had been in place for over a decade, a failure. PEMS aimed to improve planning in the public sector, control government expenditure and give Ministers some control over government direction, and have some parallels with the system envisaged in New Zealand under the Strategic Result Area (SRA) Networks. On the basis of this parallel, this paper addresses the lessons that emerge from the Canadian experience and their relevance for thinking about public management in New Zealand.