The Management and Coordination Agency has drafted legislation designed to measure the effectiveness of public works, various regulations and other policies devised by the government, agency sources said Sunday.
For public works, research and development and official development assistance, the legislation would require the government to check the effectiveness before, during and after projects are implemented, the sources said.
Other policies would be evaluated after they are implemented to see if they are achieving expected goals, according to the sources.
Beside effectiveness, the question of whether projects are needed, and their efficiency, will also be factors to be evaluated, they said.
The bill was drafted with the aim of eliminating redundant public works and increasing the transparency of the government's implementation of policies.
The agency still needs to sound out other ministries and agencies about the legislation, which it aims to introduce some time after the reorganization of central government ministries and agencies in January.
The draft legislation sets out an outline for ways to promote policy evaluation for all ministries and agencies. It requires each ministry and agency to draw up specific plans for making evaluations within five years. These specific plans will be subject to revision each fiscal year.
The legislation also requires that re-evaluations be made immediately if plans and programs have been stalled for a certain period or if there is a major change in the social situation.
The draft also says an independent panel of experts should be hired to measure the effectiveness of a policy if it concerns highly technical matters.
Under the bill, evaluation reports will have to be filed in the Diet and be made public, and each ministry and agency must seek public comments on its policies.