4th International Conference on Accounting, Auditing and Management in Public Sector Reforms “Performance Measurement of the Portuguese Police Force using the Balanced Scorecard” Thematic Area: Management accounting developments in the public sector

As a result of reforms brought about by the New Public Management (NPM) movement, public organizations have felt the need to develop adequate information systems to improve the policy process decision-making and to introduce resource allocation based on outputs and outcomes. The objective is to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and the quality of the public service with improved management costs. What is the role of the BSC in the performance measurement of the Portuguese Police System? And to extent are police agents willing to comply with BSC requirements? The first study of its kind in Portugal, this paper proposes to analyze the BSC´s place in the police management and police predisposition to apply the BSC as a performance measurement system in the Portuguese Police. Using a unique data set assembled by way of a nationwide survey sent to all the police chiefs of the four branches of the Portuguese police, we estimate an ordered logit regression model. We find that prior knowledge of the BSC, as well as the impact of the NPM issues, are important determinants of the predisposition to apply the BSC