Evaluation Study of the New Leadership Model of the Swiss Federal Administration (NFB)

What is the New Leadership Model of the Swiss Federal Administration? 

Since the beginning of 2017, the Swiss Federal Administration has been working across the board with a performance budgeting system, the New Federal Management Model (NFB). It is intended to improve budget control, administrative management, and the transparency and controllability of the services provided. A central new control instrument is, for example, working with an Integrated Task and Finance Plan (IAFP) as a new representation of the budget. 

How is the chair involved? 

In line with the fundamental approach of results orientation, an evaluation of the implementation and effectiveness was ordered for the introduction of the New Federal Management Model (NFB). On behalf of the Federal Finance Administration (FFA), the Graduate Institute of Public Administration (IDHEAP) at the University of Lausanne worked together with Prof. Dr. Proeller on an implementation and impact evaluation of the NFB under the direction of the consortium econcept AG.

What was the goal? 

The evaluation serves to verify to what extent the objectives of the NFB have been achieved and to what extent there is room for improvement in the use of the NFB instruments. To this end, the enforcement processes and outcomes as well as the impact of the NFB were comprehensively analyzed and researched. For this purpose 

• a document analysis was used,
• an online survey was conducted among all departments and administrative units,
• in-depth interviews were conducted with representatives of the Swiss Federal Council, the Federal Assembly, the departments and administrative units,  
• a workshop was held with a selection of the same representatives, and
• an international comparison on the further development of NFB instruments.  

Ultimately, the evaluation is intended to provide policy makers and administrators with guidance on how to deal with the model in the future.