History
• In 1972 the Illinois General Assembly established the Economic and Fiscal Commission (IEFC). One of the Commission's early missions was to compile program output and outcome information and prepare evaluative reports for the legislature's use regarding agency performance results.
• In 1974 the Illinois General Assembly enacted the Illinois State Auditing Act to implement the Auditor General provisions of the 1970 Constitution. The Act drew heavily on the General Accounting Office (GAO) Model State Audit Act and incorporated broad and explicit authority for the Auditor General to conduct management and program performance audits. These are defined to be independent, after the fact (i.e., “post” audit) assessments of the efficiency and effectiveness (performance) of agencies and programs.
• In 1975 the Governor and the Bureau of the Budget implemented an “accountability budget” process and justification to the General Assembly. The process and presentation required funding to be tied to measures of outputs and outcomes.
• In the early 1980's the Illinois General assembly enacted regulatory “sunset review” legislation. This initiative focused on state government regulatory programs, particularly those regarding licensure of professions. The legislation required analysis of the costs and performance results of the covered programs.
• In 1989 the Illinois General Assembly passed the Budget Performance Accountability Act. It directed the Governor and the Director of the Bureau of the Budget to develop and implement a program that would tie agency performance results to their budgetary authority. The Act provided for full implementation by 1993.
• Starting in the 1980's the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) concluded that users of the information provided by governmental financial reporting share a common interest in information about the services provided by the organization, its efficiency and effectiveness in providing those services, and its ability to continue to provide those services. Taxpayers need information to help them assess whether governmental units have achieved their public objectives. In addition, they want to know how the services provided by the governmental unit are likely to affect the amount of taxes and fees they will be required to pay. Resource providers such as lenders, suppliers, and employees view a governmental organization as a source of payment for the cash, goods, or services they supply. Governing and oversight bodies also use information about services renders to help them evaluate whether managers have carried out their policy mandates and to change or formulate new policies for the organization.
Realizing the insufficient disclosure of such information demanded by accountability, the GASB initiated research on Service, Efforts, and accomplishments (SEA), a new format for the disclosure of performance measurement. The uses of resources represent service efforts, and the results represent service accomplishments; thus SEA reporting focuses on the results as well as the resources consumed. Its objective is to assess the benefits of expending efforts and financial resources.
The GASB believes that full accountability requires additional information beyond that traditionally supplied in external financial statements. While such a requirement would considerably expand the scope of the published financial statements, the GASB has expressed the view that, as the primary accountability document, the external financial report (the CAFR) is the appropriate vehicle for the disclosure of SEA measures.
• In May 1987, the GASB Concepts Statement No. 1 concluded that the objectives of GAAP financial statements includes “assist in fulfilling government's duty to be publicly accountable and…enable users to assess that accountability,” and to “provide information to assist users in assessing the service, efforts, costs and accomplishments of the governmental entity.”
• 1989-1993 - GASB published nine related research reports to discuss the results of its SEA research project.
• In 1994, GASB issued its Concepts Statement No. 2, Service, Efforts and Accomplishments, stating, “the Board believes that reporting SEA information is fundamental both to governmental decision making and to public accountability.”
• On April 2, 1997 the Chairman of the GASB and its Director of Research announced the designation of Illinois and its FY 1997 CAFR, as a GASB service, efforts and accomplishments (SEA) experimentation project.
• In 1998 the Illinois Office of the Comptroller established a SAMS procedure for SEA reporting and produced an SEA report.
• In 1999 the Illinois Office of the Comptroller launched the Public Accountability Report ( PAR ) by which state agencies annually report on their SEA performance in carrying out their statutory missions. The Comptroller's office produced the first formal PAR report.