proposing a performance measurement framework for the municipalities

Background and objectives: the main objective of this paper is to propose aperformance measurement framework for iranian municipalities as a public institution.methods: by selecting karaj municipality and referring to balanced score-cardmethodology (bsc), an attempt has been made to provide a framework that can beused in public institutions as an efficient tool for measuring performance. the researchused analytical methods and stand-alone questionnaire survey techniques, a casestudy approach by cross-sectional method. the research environment was the centralmunicipality of karaj and the relevant deputies. content validity was used to determinethe validity of the questionnaire. the reliability of the questionnaire was determinedbased on cronbach’s alpha. also, the balanced score-card framework is integrated withan analytic hierarchy process (ahp).findings: the results show that through the citizenship viewpoint, the satisfactionlevel of personal investors and makers is almost 7 times more important than citizens’satisfaction. the municipality of karaj pays more attention to the interests of the privatesector than the public interests which comes from the municipality money makingtarget. the improved implemented projects index was, through the internal processesof business, about 3 times more important than the number of new projects index. itseems more logical to focus on the process improvement plan and project managementimprovement. completion of the current projects can increase the added value to karajmunicipality. also proper performance of information technology (it) unit shows thegrowing importance of e-government to improve the performance of municipalities andprocess improvement plan.conclusion: finally, it seems a continuous process of such framework has the abilityto bring together all key internal and external shareholders and rulemakings can beshaped during time and this process can be accepted by iran’s municipal managementwith methodologies that compare relative importance in performance criteria.