Download or read book The Efficiency of Public Sector Outsourcing Contracts written by Paul H. Jensen and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outsourcing the provision of traditionally publicly-provided services has become commonplace in most industrialized nations. Despite its prevalence, there still is no consensus in the academic literature on the magnitude (and determinants) of expected cost savings to the government, nor the sources of those savings. This article considers the arguments for (and against) outsourcing and then examines the empirical evidence pertaining to whether any observed savings occur and whether they persist over time. In addition, we examine the existing evidence for the "redistribution hypothesis" and the "quality-shading hypothesis", which critics have used to argue that outsourcing may result in lower government expenditure, but it does so by lowering wages and conditions for employees and lower quality services. Finally, we consider the impact of contract design on outsourcing outcomes.

Download or read book Incentives and the Efficiency of Public Sector Outsourcing Contracts written by Paul H. Jensen and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outsourcing the provision of traditionally publicly provided services has become commonplace in most industrialized nations. Despite its prevalence, there still is no consensus in the academic literature on the magnitude (and determinants) of expected cost savings to the government, nor the sources of those savings. This article considers the arguments for (and against) outsourcing and then examines the empirical evidence pertaining to whether any observed savings occur and whether they persist over time. In addition, we examine the existing evidence for the 'redistribution hypothesis' and the 'quality-shading hypothesis', which critics have used to argue that outsourcing lowers government expenditure by lowering wages and conditions and/or lower quality services. Finally, we consider the impact of contract design on outsourcing outcomes. While the power of incentives is a strong theme in economics, recent work has suggested that high-powered incentives may be suboptimal for many public sector services, because they may crowd out intrinsic motivation, particularly in instances where agents are highly motivated. We discuss the implications of this insight for the efficiency of public sector outsourcing.

Download or read book Public Sector Outsourcing Contracts written by Paul H. Jensen and published by VDM Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite widespread implementation across the industrialised world, public sector outsourcing remains a contentious policy for the simple reason that many outsourcing contracts fail. Critics of outsourcing often argue that the stated efficiency gains are illusory if outsourcing leads to a reduction in the quality of service provision or a reduction in workers' terms and conditions of employment. In this book, we ask: Do the criticisms of outsourcing have any empirical validity? How can we explain the observed heterogeneity in outsourcing outcomes? In answering these questions, we focus on the role of uncertainty, incentives and transaction costs on contractual relationships. Although the importance of these factors is well-known, there is little empirical work analysing the effect of these factors on public-sector outsourcing arrangements. The results, therefore, should help business, students and government policymakers in identifying factors that affect the efficiency of outsourcing arrangements.

Download or read book The Impact of Incentives Uncertainty and Transaction Costs on the Efficiency of Public Sector Outsourcing Contracts written by Paul H. Jensen and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Government by Contract written by Jody Freeman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-28 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic growth of government over the course of the twentieth century since the New Deal prompts concern among libertarians and conservatives and also among those who worry about government’s costs, efficiency, and quality of service. These concerns, combined with rising confidence in private markets, motivate the widespread shift of federal and state government work to private organizations. This shift typically alters only who performs the work, not who pays or is ultimately responsible for it. “Government by contract” now includes military intelligence, environmental monitoring, prison management, and interrogation of terrorism suspects. Outsourcing government work raises questions of accountability. What role should costs, quality, and democratic oversight play in contracting out government work? What tools do citizens and consumers need to evaluate the effectiveness of government contracts? How can the work be structured for optimal performance as well as compliance with public values? Government by Contract explains the phenomenon and scope of government outsourcing and sets an agenda for future research attentive to workforce capacities as well as legal, economic, and political concerns.

Download or read book Performance based Contracting for Health Services in Developing Countries written by Benjamin Loevinsohn and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the existence of effective interventions, there are many developing countries which are not on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for health. In many countries the delivery of health services is inadequate and one way of improving the situation is to contract with non-state providers. Contracting is a mechanism for a financing entity to procure a defined set of services from a non-state provider. Performance-based contracting is a type of contracting with: (a) a clear set of objectives and indicators; (b) systematic efforts to collect data to judge contractor performance; and (c) some consequences for the contractor, either rewards or sanctions, based on performance. Effective contracting for health services can be facilitated by using a systematic approach, described in this toolkit, that addresses key issues, including how to: 1. have a constructive dialogue with all stakeholders; 2. define the health services in terms of what services are to be delivered, where, the quantity of beneficiaries to be served, equity, and quality of care; 3. design the monitoring and evaluation to judge the performance of contractors; 4. select the contractors in a fair and transparent way; 5. arrange for effective contract management; 6. draft the contract and bidding documents; and 7. carry out the bidding process and successfully manage the contracts. The toolkit also includes a review of 14 evaluated examples of contracting in developing countries which concludes that the current weight of evidence indicates that contracting improves the coverage and quality of services rapidly. The six cases with controlled, before and after evaluations demonstrated large impact with themedian double difference (follow-up minus baseline in the experimental group minus follow-up minus baseline in the control) ranging from 9 to 26 percentage points.

Download or read book Performance Based Contracts PBC for Improving Utilities Efficiency written by Philippe Marin and published by IWA Publishing. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientific and Technical Report No. 24 Performance-Based Contracts (PBC) for Improving Utilities Efficiency: Experiences and Perspectives is a compendium of articles written by members of the PBC taskforce. It focuses on new approaches without delegated management to private operator i.e. service contracts, consulting contracts, Alliance approach, public-public partnership. It also mentions new design and generation of more traditional PPPs, (MC, lease, concession), where a larger proportion of performance-based design is being applied. List of Contents: Performance Based Contracts – Setting the scene; PBC and Results Based Financing: the inverse approach; PBC and Energy Efficiency; Internal Performance Contracts: A Case of the National Water and Sewerage Corporation in Uganda; Performance-Based Service Contracts in Navi Mumbai; Financial Comparison of PBCs and Conventional Approach; Tegucigalpa PBC Case Study; Performance Based Contracts – Key Design Issues; NRW Reduction Optimization Framework; How to improve water services performance? Performance Based Contracts (PBC) and Regulatory issues; Peer-to-Peer Partnerships Operational for sustainable water services; Performance Based Contracts in Malawi: Teamwork Works; Performance based affermage contracts; Performance based Contracts, The Aroona Integrated Alliance Experience; Experience from Eastern Europe; NRW Performance Contract – Kingdom of Bahrain; The way forward and perspectives/trends

Download or read book Contracts Performance Measurements and Accountability in the Public Sector written by Gavin Drewry and published by IOS Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses issues to do with public accountability, audit and performance measurement that are both highly topical and of crucial importance to the theory and practice of public administration in an era of contractualized public management. The literature on public sector contracting - covering both 'hard' agreements (ones that are legally enforceable) and 'soft' agreements (enforced by negotiation and mutual trust) - has been growing for some time and the present book adds a primarily European perspective on contracting, performance-based management and accountability. One important aspect of this study is its recognition that those responsible for monitoring public services, and holding them to account, have had - to an increasing extent - to reconcile tensions between, on the one hand, the need for strong oversight and, on the other, the encouragement of innovation and risk in an increasingly competitive and entrepreneurial public service culture. Following an introductory overview by the three editors the book is in three parts.The first part deals with the theory and practice of performance measurement and evaluation; the second part provides a series of specific case studies of audit and accountability in a variety of countries and contexts; the third part offers some wider, cross-cutting perspectives. Based on the work of the EGPA permanent study group on the history of contractualization, Contracts, Performance Measurement and Accountability in the Public Sector draws upon the wide expertise and research interests of academics and practitioners from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden and the USA.

Download or read book The Efficiency of Public Sector Outsourcing Contracts written by Paul H. Jensen and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outsourcing the provision of traditionally publicly-provided services has become commonplace in most industrialized nations. Despite its prevalence, there still is no consensus in the academic literature on the magnitude (and determinants) of expected cost savings to the government, nor the sources of those savings. This article considers the arguments for (and against) outsourcing and then examines the empirical evidence pertaining to whether any observed savings occur and whether they persist over time. In addition, we examine the existing evidence for the "redistribution hypothesis" and the "quality-shading hypothesis", which critics have used to argue that outsourcing may result in lower government expenditure, but it does so by lowering wages and conditions for employees and lower quality services. Finally, we consider the impact of contract design on outsourcing outcomes.

Download or read book Outsourcing Management Functions for the Acquisition of Federal Facilities written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2001-01-20 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study outsourcing is defined as the organizational practice of contracting for services from an external entity while retaining control over assets and oversight of the services being outsourced. In the 1980s, a number of factors led to a renewed interest in outsourcing. For private sector organizations, outsourcing was identified as a strategic component of business process reengineering-an effort to streamline an organization and increase its profitability. In the public sector, growing concern about the federal budget deficit, the continuing long-term fiscal crisis of some large cities, and other factors accelerated the use of privatization measures (including outsourcing for services) as a means of increasing the efficiency of government.

Download or read book An Investigation Into the Performance of Security and Cleaning Services Outsourcing in the Nigerian Public Sector written by Grace Ofoegbu and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent reforms in the Nigerian Public Sector have given rise to using outsourcing as a strategic tool for public financial management in the Government sector. It was aimed at helping to achieve cost reduction in operations, improved service deliver, accountability and transparency in the public service. Since its inception, no study has been carried out to establish the extent to which the objectives have been achieved. This paper was therefore designed to examine the performance of outsourcing activities in the Nigerian public sector and the extent to which government objectives have been achieved. The result of this study will enable the government correct some mistakes made in the policy and improved on the existing practices. Survey design was adopted in caring out the study. Questionnaire was prepared and administered to those involved in procurement of goods and services in the Federal Government institutions used. Data collected were analysed using tables, histograms and pie chart. Hypotheses framed were tested using chi square and ANOVAs/scheffer tests. The result shows that cost reduction was not the principal objective of government outsourcing rather it was to improve efficiency and effectiveness. The outsourcing initiative has impacted positively on efficiency and effectiveness, and service delivery as quality of service is given priority consideration in award of outsourcing contracts. There is no significant improvement in terms of cost reduction. The researcher recommended that there should be a kind of re-examination of cost at which contracts are awarded to ensure that the cost of outsourcing does not exceed its in-house cost of rendering the same services.

Download or read book Outsourcing in the UK written by Morphet, Janice and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2021-04-15 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this comprehensive account, Janice Morphet analyses the role and use of outsourcing within the UK public sector since the mid-1970s. Morphet examines the many drivers for the use of outsourcing in the public sector, including international agreements, new public management, performativity and austerity. She also takes in to account the role and failures of the private sector and its response to the opening up of public sector competition. By investigating the way that outsourcing has been used in different service sectors and across scales, the book illustrates the impact it has had on ideology, policy narratives and public expectations in the present.

Download or read book The best services at the lowest price written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Reform. Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Outsourcing Sovereignty written by Paul R. Verkuil and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-12-19 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reliance on the private military industry and the privatization of public functions has left our government less able to govern effectively. When decisions that should have been taken by government officials are delegated (wholly or in part) to private contractors without appropriate oversight, the public interest is jeopardized. Books on private military have described the problem well, but they have not offered prescriptions or solutions this book does.

Download or read book Contracts as Reinvented Institutions in the Public Sector written by Carsten Greve and published by Praeger. This book was released on 2005-04-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contracting has become one of the tools that governments use to make their services more efficient and effective. This work studies the positives and negatives involved with the multiple elements of contracting. Contract culture is broken down into its many parts: rules and regulations, norms and values, local governments and the private sector. This allows the authors to examine the topic through a unique cross-cultural lens and provide a fresh take on this expanding topic. Sources such as survey data, in-depth case studies, and analysis of advocacy coalitions are used to shed new light on contract governance. Topics include: *Contracting on the Public Agenda. *Limits of the New Contractualism. *The hard and soft elements of contracts. *Local Governments. *Contracting as part of the New Public Management.

Download or read book Human Services Contracting written by Robert A. Shick and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-12-10 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last 35 years, governments around the globe have increasingly contracted with nonprofit and for-profit entities designed to provide a portion of the public sector’s portfolio of goods and services. This trend can be traced to a variety of factors, including perceived or actual economic efficiencies in outsourcing goods and services, values concerning the role and size of government in society, and the financial and organizational constraints of many government entities. In the United States, child welfare services adopted a pro-contracting approach early, and a variety of other human services have followed suit, including mental health care, job training, homeless services and others. Although there is strong evidence to suggest that human service contracting is growing over time, scholarship continues to lag on topics related to human service contract management, policy implementation and innovation, performance-based contracting and evaluation. This new volume in the Public Solutions Handbook series is the first volume-length treatment of human services contracting issues, integrating both policy and practice, and exploring a broad range of issues that includes the fields of history, growth, innovations, results and outcomes, best practices and the future of government human service contracting. Chapters in this book examine specific human service contracts, both in the U.S. and abroad, geared to practitioners in the public sector—from local government service contractors to municipal employees—as well as MPA students and those enrolled in courses on intergovernmental relations and nonprofit management.

Download or read book Government Contracting written by William Sims Curry and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2010-04-27 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guidebook through the minefield of government contracting and procurement, Government Contracting: Promises and Perils describes the dangerous practices commonly applied in the development and management of government contracts and provides advice for avoiding the sort of errors that might compromise their ability to protect the public interest. It includes strategies for increasing profits for government contractors, rather than incurring burdensome costs, through compliance with government mandated subcontracting and financial management systems. Drawing from his indepth investigation of government agencies across the country, the author examines present-day scenarios that regularly lead public servants and government committees to manage contracts with tools that are less than optimal and to select contractors that may not be the best qualified. He then delineates practical processes, contracting documents, and contract management tools to mitigate detrimental outcomes and alternative approaches to supplant the imperfect methodologies. The author includes a CD-ROM with the book that provides a number of practical tools that you can apply as well as examples of contracts and templates that are the best he discovered during his research. The book also outlines an approach for performing advance contract planning, conducting contract negotiations, and administering contracts useful when planning for the management of the contracting process throughout the contracting cycle, negotiating a contract that protects the interest of all contracting parties, and ensuring successful contractor performance. The book includes a "Government Procurement Corruption Wall of Shame" that illustrates the myriad perils and stumbling blocks such as conflicts of interest, duplicity, favoritism, incompetence, kickbacks, and protests that government workers fall prey to.. Filled with best practices that protect you from nefarious, amateurish, and criminal mistakes that frequently lead to difficulties with harsh consequences, the book does not end its coverage with discussions of corruption, mismanagement, and ineptitude, but provides practical processes and strategies to diminish the negative impacts from these government contracting perils.