Section 6-3A-2 - Findings and purpose. - New Mexico Statutes

6-3A-2. Findings and purpose.

A.     The legislature finds that agencies should:

(1)     be granted sufficient statutory authority and flexibility to use their resources in the best possible way in order to better serve the citizens of New Mexico through the efficient delivery of services and products and the effective administration of governmental programs;

(2)     be held accountable for the services and products they deliver in accordance with clearly defined missions, goals and objectives;

(3)     develop performance measures for evaluating performance and assessing progress in achieving goals and objectives, and those measures should be integrated into the planning and budgeting process and maintained on an ongoing basis;

(4)     have incentives to deliver services and products in the most efficient and effective manner and, if appropriate, recommend the restructuring of ineffective programs or the elimination of unnecessary programs;

(5)     have their performance in achieving desired outputs and outcomes and in efficiently operating programs measured and evaluated in an effort to improve program coordination, eliminate duplicate programs or activities and provide better information to the governor, the legislature and the public; and

(6)     strive to keep the citizens of this state informed of the public benefits derived from the delivery of agency services and products and of the progress agencies are making with regard to improving performance.

B.     The purpose of the Accountability in Government Act [6-3A-1 NMSA 1978] is to provide for more cost-effective and responsive government services by using the state budget process and defined outputs, outcomes and performance measures to annually evaluate the performance of state government programs.