This article aims to present the efficiency and effectiveness indicators that should be considered when planning and evaluating the performance of a municipal administration.
HOW TO PLAN AND MEASURE THE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MANAGEMENT OF A MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
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HOW TO PLAN AND MEASURE THE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS
OF THE MANAGEMENT OF A MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to present the efficiency and effectiveness indicators that should be
considered when planning and evaluating the performance of a municipal administration.
According to Peter Drucker, one of the great masters of modern Administration,
efficiency consists of doing right what is planned which is usually linked to the
operational level, in how to carry out operations with less resources, that is, with less
time, less budget, less people, less raw material, etc. Effectiveness, on the other hand,
consists of doing the right things, that is, doing what is necessary to achieve the
objectives. The meaning of efficiency has to do with doing more and better with as few
resources as possible. Effectiveness, in turn, is directly related to the ultimate goal. An
effective manager is one who, in addition to carrying out his processes correctly, also
focuses on results and exploits all the potential available. Efficiency is therefore different
from effectiveness, which means getting the right things done. Efficiency is associated
with processes and effectiveness, with results. The effectivity of an administration is
achieved when efficiency and effectiveness are achieved simultaneously, that is, it
achieves the objectives as planned and, at the same time, uses the resources in the best
possible way. This is what every city manager should pursue.
In municipal management, efficiency is related to the improvement of education, health,
public transport, low-cost housing, basic sanitation, a collection system, treatment and
final disposal of garbage, public safety, the city's urban infrastructure and of the structure
itself administrative office of the city hall. For municipal management to be efficient, it
means the manager doing things correctly with the least use of resources and the shortest
possible time, having to master the process, being skilled and quick. This is efficiency,
doing things right. A municipal manager is efficient when he performs sectorial tasks and
the administration as a whole with the lowest possible budget, with the least number of
people involved and with the lowest expenditure of materials, energy and other inputs
needed with the available technology.
The efficiency indicators of a municipal management would be obtained by calculating
by sector (education, health, public transport, low-cost housing, basic sanitation,
collection system, treatment and final disposal of garbage, public safety and urban
infrastructure of the city) and for the municipal administration as a whole the following
relations: 1) Budget allocated to education by total enrolled students (R $ / student); 2)
Budget allocated to health by the total number of people benefited (R $ / person
benefited); 3) Budget allocated for public transport by total number of users (R $ / users);
4) Budget allocated to low-income housing by the total number of people benefited (R $
/ person benefited); 5) Budget allocated to basic sanitation by the total number of people
benefited (R $ / person benefited); 6) Budget allocated in the system of collection,
treatment and final disposal of garbage by the total inhabitants of the city (R $ /
inhabitant); 7) Budget allocated to public security by the total number of crimes registered
in the city (R $ / registered crimes); 8) Budget allocated to urban infrastructure by the
total number of inhabitants in the city (R $ / inhabitant); and, 9) Cost of the municipality's
administrative machine / Collection of fees and taxes. Efficiency would be achieved when
these relationships were as small as possible with the use of the best technology available
in each sector.
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For municipal management to be effective, it means the manager achieving the economic,
social and environmental objectives aimed at the social well-being of its population. It is
worth noting that every municipality will only achieve the well-being of its population
when economic progress, social progress and environmental progress occur
simultaneously. To be effective in their developmental policies, city managers need to
ensure that the drivers of development existing in the plans of the Economy, Society and
Territory are widely used to promote economic, social and environmental progress and
that restrictive factors are eliminated or neutralized.
Figure 1 - The economy-society-territory tripod
The effectiveness of municipal management will be achieved when there is the most
appropriate synergy between the factors existing in the plans of the Economy, Society
and Territory, which is decisive for achieving the necessary economic, social and
environmental development.
Figure 2 - Economy-society-territory synergy and development
To promote the development of the municipality in terms of the Economy and the
Territory, it is necessary that its managers plan and elaborate projects to: 1) carry out
public and private investments (internal and external) aiming to increase the internal
production of products and services to supply the internal and also external demand to the
ECONOMY
SOCIETY TERRITORY
ECONOMY
SOCIETY
TERRITORY
Economic and
social
development
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municipality; 2) supply the needs of economic infrastructure (energy, transport and
communications); 3) create incentives for companies to implement research structures
focused on product and process innovation in conjunction with universities and research
centers; 4) make public and private investments in structuring and rationalizing transport
infrastructure and improving the urban structure of the city; and, 5) promote the use of
the endogenous potential existing in the city.
The effectiveness of the administration in the economic and territorial plan must be
measured by the growth rate of the municipal GDP (Gross Domestic Product) which is
the sum of all services and goods produced in a period (month, semester, year) expressed
as a percentage. Another effectiveness meter is the GPI - Genuine Progress Indicator,
which considers the calculation of GDP, but subtracts costs resulting from factors such
as costs of crime, pollution, environmental degradation and the compromise of resources
and natural systems, such as water supply, for example, in addition to adding items such
as domestic and voluntary work not included in the GDP calculation (See the site
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genuine_progress_indicator>).
To promote the development of the municipality at the level of the Society and the
Environment, it is necessary that its municipal managers plan and elaborate projects for;
1) make public and private investments to develop the education system at all levels to
better qualify human resources and use the existing science and technology system to
provide the knowledge resources necessary for the city's development process; 2)
promote investments in social infrastructure (education, health, housing and basic
sanitation) and in the urban structure of the city with a view to improving the population's
living conditions; 3) promote investments in economic infrastructure (energy, transport
and communication) and, 4) promote investments aimed at improving the city's
environment.
The effectiveness of the administration in the social plan must be measured by the
unemployment rate which must be the lowest possible and the income distribution index
of the municipality which must be the highest possible. Another indicator of
effectiveness, which should be as high as possible, is the municipality's Human
Development Index (HDI), used by the United Nations, which takes into account GDP
per capita, people's longevity and their education (assessed by illiteracy rate and
enrollment rates at various levels of education). The effectiveness of the administration
in the environmental plan must be measured with the use of indicators from the
municipality, such as the emission of greenhouse gases, the consumption of fossil fuels,
the measurement of pollution of land, air, ocean and water which must be reset to zero or
serve as low as possible.
All the indicators presented are important, not only for municipal managers to be able to
plan and evaluate their administrations, but also for the communities subject to these
administrations to be able to evaluate their performance and guide their decisions at
election times on the support to be granted or not to their managers. The rational citizen
must judge whether a public administrator should be kept in office or not deciding
rationally based on the evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness indicators of his
administration and not by ideology or judge in favor of an administrator attracted only by
the execution of facade works or Pharaonic as it has been throughout history. The rational
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citizen must choose a new public administrator analyzing whether the government plan
of the person who holds the position and of the opposing candidates contributes or not to
the improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness indicators of the management of their
city
* Fernando Alcoforado, 80, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System,
member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional
Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of
strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the
books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem
Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os
condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de
Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora
Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos
na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica,
Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate
ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores
Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no
Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba,
2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua
convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018, em co-autoria) and Como inventar o futuro
para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019).