Performance Budgeting in Korea

Abstract

Late in 1900 the Bureau of the Budget began an extensive study of the concept and techniques of performance budgeting. This was initiated by Director Hahn-Been Lee and was a purely spontaneous move on the part of the Korean government. In April 1961, a group of six men, including the Director of the Budget Bureau, visited Manila to observe performance budgeting in he Philippine. government. Performance budgeting in the Philippines was the object of interest to the Korean officials for two reasons. In the first place, they wanted to know whether performance budgeting was successful in such a developing country as Philippines. More han this, they wanted to know what were the major obstacles in installing performance budgeting and how these obstacles were overcome by the Philippine government. Secondly, Malcolm Parsons' article, "Performance Budgeting in the Philippines" and comments made by Messrs. Zimmermann, Kroerger and Stene on the article aroused much interest among knowledgeable Korean officials. After the group returned from the Philippines, the Bureau of the Budget began a two week training program for ministerial budget officers and other officials concerned. The following fifteen programs in three ministries were selected to make the pioneering shift to performance budgeting in the fiscal year 1962.