Ministry of Planning and Budget launches task force to overhaul fiscal performance management

The Ministry of Planning and Budget plans to comprehensively overhaul its fiscal performance management framework, covering evaluations of fiscal projects and fund operations. Building on the integrated fiscal project performance evaluation introduced for the first time this year, the ministry aims to strengthen the effectiveness and credibility of assessments and establish a results-oriented fiscal management system that citizens can tangibly feel.

The ministry held an expert forum on fiscal performance management at the Government Seoul Building on Wednesday, chaired by Minister Park Hong-keun, to discuss directions for improving core performance management systems — including fiscal project evaluation, performance target management and fund operation assessment. Fiscal policy experts attended the forum, among them Jeong Jang-hun, a professor at Hansung University; Kim Ji-young, a professor at Incheon National University; and Kim Nu-ri, a professor at Hanyang University.

Participants assessed that the integrated fiscal project performance evaluation, conducted for the first time this year, had contributed to encouraging more active expenditure restructuring. However, they called for stronger links between the new evaluation and the separate fiscal project assessments that individual ministries conduct under their own statutes, and said the framework should be expanded to connect with in-depth evaluations at the "project cluster" level to address the limitations of single-project assessments.

Experts also noted that while the performance target management system provides a large amount of information, its actual utilization remains low, and called for structural improvements to make relevant data easier to access. On fund operation assessments, participants said mechanisms are needed to ensure that evaluation results translate into institutional improvements.

Drawing on this feedback, the ministry will formally launch a Performance Management Improvement Task Force in July. The task force will comprise three working groups — covering fiscal project evaluation, performance target management and fund assessment — along with a dedicated diagnostic team for the integrated fiscal project evaluation. For the integrated fiscal project evaluation conducted for the first time this year, the ministry plans to gather comprehensive input from both evaluators and those being evaluated to develop improvement measures.

On that basis, the ministry plans to finalize the Second Basic Plan for Performance Management (2027–2031), laying out a medium- to long-term vision for performance management, by the end of this year.

"We will use the opinions raised at today's forum as the basis for developing improvements across fiscal and fund performance management," Park said. He called on officials to "dramatically restructure the three pillars of performance management — fiscal project performance evaluation, performance target management and fund assessment — into a system with genuine credibility and effectiveness."