Evaluation of the regional public authorities’ activities: key theoretical and practical aspects

Abstract

Activity of public administration is one of the most evaluated aspects involving hundreds of stakeholders across Ukraine. It is an important topic, as evaluation is one of the main ways for collection of the useful evidence for policymaking. Evaluation can be defined as the collection of evidence for formulating a judgement on the merits of an intervention, programme or policy. There is an unsolved task to provide an in-depth analysis with up-to-date information on the role of the evaluation of regional public authorities and local self-government institutions’ activities. The article shows a number of evaluation methods for the public authorities’ activities and reveals the factors that explain the current situation. The authors propose indicators that meet current trends, in particular the concept of sustainable development, within which the world community is moving. The system of balanced indicators allows to link strategic goals and key indicators that measure the degree of their achievement in the regions. The formation of a perfect evaluation system for the public authorities’ activities includes monitoring of the obtained results, their comparison with the forecast and plan under the condition of clearly defined costs in advance. This involves the use of a set of indicators, in particular: indicators that characterize economic and financial sustainability, those which assess institutional development, social transformation, environmental responsibility and energy efficiency. The influence of the public opinion makes any management process more or less public, so it is necessary to intensify the process of the public monitoring of the services provided by the public authorities, with further response or accumulation of the information for further consideration.