Digital Government Review of Panama by OECD

Author:OECD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: governance
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Published: 2019-09-20T00:00:00+00:00

Budget thresholds

Centralised mechanisms of pre-evaluation of investments in digital technologies are frequently adopted by countries to reinforce the alignment across the administration. This pre-evaluation is typically supported by the establishment of thresholds for investments in digital technologies above a certain budgetary value. Countries such as Denmark, Norway or Portugal use this effective policy lever to improve the coherence and sustainability of the investments made, enforcing the use of policy guidelines and standards and ensuring the avoidance of gaps and overlaps in the investments.

This policy lever encourages a systems thinking approach that promotes consistent public expenses across the administration, stimulating co-operation and synergies across the different sectors of government. Moreover, the existence of budget thresholds can improve the transparency, monitoring and accountability of the investments made, allowing not only the government to better oversee in a centralised way the financial efforts made by the administration, but also to create an opportunity for civil society to better track the aforementioned efforts.

The value of the budget threshold varies substantially among OECD member countries and reflects the level of enforcement for efficiency and coherence that the government has in place. The value of the threshold can also reflect more centralised administrative cultures or conversely the greater autonomy of public sector organisations. For instance, while in Portugal the budget threshold is EUR 10 000, in Denmark it is around EUR 1 300 000 (DKK 10 000 000) and in Norway around EUR 1 033 000 (NOK 10 000 000).

In Panama, investments in digital technologies above PAB 50 000 (approximately EUR 44 000) need to be pre-evaluated by AIG. This important mechanism gives the Authority an important policy lever not only to oversee investments made across the administration, but also to influence their alignment with national digital government policy (see Chapter 2: Strategies and co-ordination for ICT procurement). The budget threshold is also an important sign of a culture of evaluation and monitoring in the country, contributing decisively to the digital maturity of the Panamanian governance of digital government experience.

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