AS per the latest OECD Report - 'Government at a Glance 2011' - the
average government spending in the OECD area is larger than ever before: it
exceeds 45% of GDP, up from slightly more than 40% in pre-crisis 2007.
Unsustainable fiscal positions in many countries will require a reduction in
public expenditures, and in some cases revenue increases. But future fiscal
consolidation efforts will also offer the opportunity to rethink and reform the
public sector to improve its performance.
Government at a Glance 2011 provides facts and figures to help decision
makers identify new opportunities for savings and innovation in the public
sector. It presents data on public finance and economics for 2000, 2007 and
2009, to showcase trends over this decade as well as the impact of the financial
and economic crises. The report quantifies the size and role of government,
including revenues generated, resources used and spending. It looks at how
government works – both in terms of what it does and how it does it. And it
details the goods and services governments produce along with their impacts on
citizens and business.
The report brings together 58 data sets on
government. Statistics from Chile, Estonia, Israel and Slovenia, which joined
the OECD in 2010, are included when available. The Russian Federation, which is
seeking to join the OECD, and other major economies, including China, India,
Indonesia and South Africa, are also covered.
A highlight of this year’s
report is a series of international comparisons of pay for public servants like
teachers, doctors and nurses or managers and other personnel in government
departments. Launching just as over 25 countries across the OECD are freezing
public sector wages or cutting government jobs in an effort to cut costs, the
salary survey is designed to help governments ensure that reforms don’t endanger
their ability to attract, motivate and retain qualified workers.
The
report shows that governments are increasingly leveraging their resources by
partnering with non-profits and private companies to deliver goods and services
to citizens. The use of outsourcing has increased by over 15% on average over
the past decade, representing about 10% of GDP in OECD member countries today.
As governments look to all sources for savings, ensuring that outsourcing
results in efficiency gains is essential.
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