La loi organique relative aux loi de finances (LOLFf) : contrôle ou liberté ?

Abstract

This article draws the lessons of twenty years experience with management through programmes in some OECD countries. Based on the evaluation of these programmes and the debates surrounding them, the article discusses the reform’s various successes and failures, indeed much the same in all countries. In order not to focus on cultural and national specificities, reasons for failure and factors of success are described in two imaginary countries. The lesson that can be drawn is that in France, the LOLF is at a crossroads between an exclusively budgetary and accounting model based on the close control of activity and a performance dynamic that truly and lastingly motivates civil servants as to the social usefulness of their activities. As in all countries, such a reform needs time, on condition that it be possible to maintain the desire for change, to correct errors, progress and learn. The great strength of the LOLF is its capacity to bring to the surface all the important management questions : how to motivate agents ? Should Parliament be involved ? Are users taken into consideration ? Are we managing growing social demand on more and more limited means ? What degree of empowerment should be given to managers and their agents ? How can we change over from a culture of procedure to one of initiative and conscious and justified risk ? Is it possible to manage public policy without evaluating it ? If these questions are discussed with civil servants and not in closed circles, the LOLF can be a catalyst for deep and lasting change, as it is and has been in most of the OECD countries.

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