We analyse the way in which spending efficiency of French departments evolved from 2007 to 2019. We use the time-dependent conditional order-m approach , which allows to account for the heterogeneity among departments, characterized by contextual variables, and to evaluate the effect of these variables. The results reveal a continuous improvement in their performance (management of total expenditures) over time and show that departments have much more room for improvement in the management of investment expenditures than in the management of operating costs. Moreover, the time variable has a positive effect on performance (shape of the frontier and catch-up) for both the operating and the investment specific models.