Productivity in the Finnish Customs Service
Introduction
This study analyses the productivity of the Finnish Customs Service. In addition to this, it assesses how effectively the productivity measures obtained can ultimately be used to guide the operations of a public institution such as the Customs Service.
A critical assessment of the use of productivity measures is timely, as the operations of state agencies have begun to be guided by various performance targets, which partly concern specifically the growth of productivity. The problems of measuring productivity apply particularly to the Customs Service, which, along with the National Board of Public Roads and Waterways and the National Board of Patents and Registration, has been placed within a pilot scheme emphasising performance accountability. Next year the pilot will expand to cover eight other agencies.
The government is setting increasingly clear objectives for the operations of these agencies and, as stated in the government’s proposal for the 1990 budget, the intention is to give agencies increasingly greater opportunities to choose, in the most economical way, the factors of production they need for providing their services. In connection with this, the operating expenditure of agencies is budgeted as a rule as a single appropriation. In practice, the decision-making authority of agency management over the use of resources and remuneration will increase.
For the employees of state agencies, the changed situation has given rise to several questions. How will remuneration change? What will happen to jobs and working conditions? The situation is also of interest from the perspective of the taxpayer. Is an improvement in the efficiency of public operations to be expected? Will the quality of services deteriorate? Will the focus of service production shift to the private sector? (AI translation)
- ISSN: 0358-5980
- ISBN: 951-9282-22-X
