The recent slowdown in growth has underlined the urgency of measures to prevent the widening of an already large public deficit. Public debt increased from 27% to 42% of GDP between 2007 and 2015 (OECD, 2016f). This implies increasing the proportion of public expenditure which is open to challenge and control. It also means giving more emphasis to the evaluation and monitoring of public services in terms of their outcomes, and developing the capacity within government to exercise strategic oversight over main programmes and ensure that they are accountable and deliver value for money.