The Necessity of Considering Public Sector's Efficiency and Productivity Measurement in Iran's Fifth Development Plan according to Power Supply Industry's Technical Efficiency Evaluation by DEA Technique

Development plans are strategic documents for any country’s advancement and development. Given the importance of the role, goals and status of development plans, it is highly pivotal to evaluate the performance of various sectors within such plans. This article tries to measure the efficiency of Iran’s power supply companies. The statistical population consists of 38 Iranian power supply companies. Classical and stochastic Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models were used in order to measure the efficiency and evaluate performance of power supply companies. The results indicate that out of the total resources allocated to the companies concerned, considering definite (stochastic data), in average 77 (74) percent of the resources are sufficient for the functions of Iran’s power supply units to make them technically efficient. In other words, about 23 (26) percent of the companies resources are not optimally used and wasted within the period of the study. As it could be deducted that other sectors have approximately the same situations, it is recommended that it should be necessary to measure the efficiency and productivity of public sectors in every year of the Fifth Development Plan. Doubtlessly, the result of this policy would provide incentives for more efficiency and productivity in various sectors of the society. Moreover, it could lead to better use of resources and saving national wealth.