Measuring the efficiency of Curriculum Development Center of Organization for Educational Research and Planning (OERP) through performance-based budgeting

Legal requirements of the "Fifth Development Plan of Iran" have forced the executive organizations to change their budgeting based on "Activity Based Costing" till the end of the mentioned plan. The OERP (part of Ministry of Education) has considered "Performance Based Budgeting" using "Activity Based Costing" method in its fifth Development plan. This study was done with the goal of computing "Activity Based Costing "and measuring efficiency of Curriculum Development Center of OERP. It was a descriptive research. At first, using the technique of "Activity Based Costing"(ABC) the cost of activities and output of the mentioned Center was computed. Also, the norm of output activities has been computed using Linear Regression and forming focus groups and it has accounted for each output of the mentioned center. Then, the efficiency of the center has been accounted by efficiency formula, i.e., outputs divided by inputs. The research instruments included a questionnaire and interview. The results have shown that some departments of the center had sufficient efficiency and there was a direct correlation between the amount of efficiency of center and the number of books of the departments.