Symposium: Exporting Government Services

To explore the prospects for exporting government services, guest symposium editor RFI Smith invites three agencies to comment on their experience. This overview stresses the need to specify carefully costs and benefits in taking operations offshore — both in strict financial terms and in dealing with perception and accountability issues.
The prospects for exporting public sector skills and services are at the same time tantalising and frustrating. After initial enthusiasm in the 1970s and 1980s, the management of export programs has turned out to be complex, demanding and not without controversy. Such programs have challenged their proponents to be at once sophisticated in business management, rigorous and transparent in public accountability, and sensitive to the capabilities and ambitions of private sector providers of similar services. Further, after approximately 10 to 20 years of experience in different Australian jurisdictions, aims, methods and estimates of results remain diverse.     

Ethics and Government: Preliminary Considerations

This symposium reproduces several of the papers presented during the international conference sponsored by the Queensland University of Technology Centre for the Study of Ethics, at Parliament House, Brisbane, 11-13 February, 1999. The theme of the conference was 'Government and Business: Integrity and Accountability'. The papers have been revised following discussions within a research colloquium associated with the conference. They were initially presented within a strand entitled 'Competition, Marketisation, Public Services and Public Ethics' which explored ethical issues for contemporary government within different national contexts (New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Australia) around the impact of economic policies that have reframed the role of government primarily as a servant of the international market.     

Breaking the Constitutional Silence: the Public Services Industry and Government

Analysis of constitutional arrangements has been too narrow in the past, confined to examination of explicitly governmental arrangements. But corporate enterprises perform such important public functions, especially in the age of outsourcing, that they need to be incorporated into the constitution. The article develops this argument and proposes a framework for such incorporation.     

Economics of Sex: Cost-Benefit Analysis

The article presents an application of the cost-benefit analysis to human sexual behavior. We suggest that an event or occasion which lowers the costs of sex – such as increasing free time, decreasing health risks of sexually transmitted diseases or lowering the probability of parenthood (or costs connected with parenthood) – usually leads to an increase in sexual activity. Although the reviewed studies concerning these effects confirm our predictions, findings are not robust, e.g. a vaccination against STDs does not always lead to an increase in sexual activity. In the conclusion, we make several socioeconomic recommendations resulting from the application of the economics of sex.     

Local Government Procurement of CPA Audit Services: The Role of the States

Recent studies have raised serious concerns about the quality of governmental audits by independent CPAs. Part of the problem is that many governmental units do not use effective audit procurement procedures. This article examines current state guidelines for the procurement of CPA audit services by local governments and recommends an expansion of the states' role in this area.     

Coproduction of Government Services and the New Information Technology: Investigating the Distributional Biases

This article investigates how communications advances affect citizens’ ability to participate in coproduction of government services. The authors analyze service requests made to the City of Boston during a one‐year period from 2010 to 2011 and, using geospatial analysis and negative binomial regression, investigate possible disparities by race, education, and income in making service requests. The findings reveal little concern that 311 systems (nonemergency call centers) may benefit one racial group over another; however, there is some indication that Hispanics may use these systems less as requests move from call centers to the Internet and smartphones. Consistent with prior research, the findings show that poorer neighborhoods are less likely to take advantage of 311 service, with the notable exception of smartphone utilization. The implications for citizen participation in coproduction and bridging the digital divide are discussed.     

完善基层政府公共服务供给体系

基层政府是＂小政府,大社会＂,＂小政府,大服务＂,＂小政府,大保障＂。我国基层政府公共服务供给体系直接影响着社会公共利益的实现、人民生活水平的提高、基层政府的形象和国际声誉。我国部分基层政府公共服务供给体系还较薄弱,主要表现在：公共服务意识淡薄化、公共服务主体单一化、公共服务职能抽象化、公共服务形式逐利化、公共服务结构失衡化、公共服务过程形式化、公共服务导向扭曲化、公共服务重心偏离化、公共服务结果低效化。因此,我们必须以科学发展观为指导,进一步完善基层政府公共服务供给体系,包括：树立公共服务理念;强化公共服务职能;创新公共服务体制;加大公共服务投入;完善公共服务政策;提升公共服务质量。     

Joining-Up Government in the UK: Towards Public Services for an Information Age

The reform of public services has preoccupied managers for several decades. Nevertheless, it is my contention that the present reform agenda has some plausible claims to be different from much that went before. The vision that has come to the fore in the Australian federal government's Clients First Program (Information Technology Review Group 1995), in the Clinton/Gore administration's Access America report (Government IT Services 1997) andthe recent British White Paper, Modernising Government (Cabinet Office 1999) not only promotes the 'client orientation' in public administration, but also reflects a belief in the crucial contribution to be made by information and communication technologies (ICTs). This is a vision for an information age (POST 1998). It is being driven by the conviction that public management has too often been modelled on business 'as it was in the age of US Steel, not the age of Microsoft, Apple, Wal-Mart and Federal Express' (Gore 1993:xiii).     

Efficiency Measurement in Spanish Local Government: The Case of Municipal Water Services

In this work, we established a procedure for evaluation of the efficiency of the water supply. This procedure has allowed us to find that the proposed indicators have a discriminating capability in the analysis of the service, and to reject criticisms traditionally assigned to the sensitivity of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique in relation to degrees of freedom. The results obtained show that the population density, as a factor that defines one of the particular characteristics of the surroundings of each municipality, has a statistically significant impact on the indexes of efficiency, this affirmation not being extended to the public or private ownership of the service. The scale inefficiency is higher than the technical inefficiency. These typologies of efficiency are, principally, motivated by the supply side of the service, which is specially linked with the necessary infrastructure. The demand of the citizens is satisfied with a behavior close to optimal.     

北京市政府购买公共服务的实践探索与问题研究

随着我国社会公共需求全面增长以及需求日益多样化,如何创新公共服务供给模式、提高公共服务质量是当下我国地方政府需要应对的巨大挑战。相比发达国家我国公共服务购买开始的较晚且发展缓慢,取得了一些实践成果,同时也出现了一系列突出问题。以北京市政府购买公共服务的实践探索为例,通过探析其在发展中存在的问题并提出完善对策,能够为地方政府推进公共服务购买提供经验借鉴,有助于推动我国社会组织以及公共服务购买市场的健康成长。     

对居家养老服务政府购买模式的比较研究

居家养老作为一种新型的养老方式,因为服务的便利性和人性化已逐渐纳入到老年群体的需求范围中,全面推进居家养老服务,是破解我国日趋尖锐的养老服务难题.鉴于我国已经进入了老龄化社会阶段,面对公民对居家养老服务的庞大需求,政府通过购买服务的方式来解决这一现实问题.针对政府与社会组织在居家养老服务购买方面的合作现状,本研究在行动者网络理论的指导下,采用多案例比较的方式,从政府购买模式以及行动者网络视角下的内在运作机制两个维度建立分析框架,对不同的政府采购模式进行比较,分析其在运行环节中的优势劣势,以不断促进和改善采购过程中政府与社会组织的合作机制,有助于政府根据实际情境和制度安排选择购买模式,最终提高服务供给的效率和质量.     

我国政府在转型过程中的公共服务供给研究

当前随着人民生活水平提高,公众对公共服务的需求不断增长。我国在建成服务型政府的目标下,不断深化行政改革,增强公众服务的供给能力。着重分析政府在转型过程中公共服务供给所出现的问题,并从内部体制改革、民营化改革和监管体系的完善三个大方面探索政府有效提供公共服务的路径。     

Shared Services in Australian Local Government: Rationale, Alternative Models and Empirical Evidence

Widespread enthusiasm amongst Australian policy elites for structural reform in local government has evaporated as disappointing outcomes of council amalgamation programs became evident. As a consequence, emphasis has now shifted towards shared serviced models as a means of enhancing service provision and reducing costs. However, a disturbing feature of the current debate on shared services has been the absence of a well-articulated economic and political rationale for this form of service delivery, a lack of analysis of alternative models of shared service provision and a neglect of available empirical evidence. This article seeks to remedy these deficiencies by considering the analytical foundations of shared local services, conducting a review of alternative models as vehicles for shared services and evaluating available empirical evidence.     

我国不同级别公务员心理契约的差异性分析

重点研究了我国政府中行政管理部门的公务员心理契约问题,主要目的是了解公务员心理契约所包含的要素、不同级别公务员对这些要素的重视程度和建立公务员的心理契约结构模型.在两轮问卷调查的基础上,明确了组织与公务员之间相互期望的各10个要素.利用t统计检验,表明不同级别公务员对期望要素的认识有显著的差别.应用因子分析方法,建立了公务员心理契约的结构模型,该模型显示组织与公务员之间双向心理契约共包含了8个主要方面.研究的主要结论是:盈利组织的心理契约与非盈利组织的心理契约之间的差异是明显的,不同级别的公务员对心理契约中的要素重要性认识程度是不同的.我国各级公务员(从科员到厅局级)主要将敬业精神、诚实忠诚、职业前景和公平公正待遇放在心理契约要素的最重要位置上,而物质激励则处于次位.政府中的创新动力主要来自领导层面,而较低级别的公务员创新动力不足.这些研究结果对政府各级组织建立公平、透明的运作机制具有参考价值.同时为设计相应的激励制度提供了新的视角.最后提出了我国公务员心理契约需要进一步研究的问题.     

行政成本——效益分析：行政管理经济理性与社会理性的统一

我国是世界上行政管理费用高昂的国家,巨额的行政费用对我国经济建设的制约作用日渐凸显,而传统政府管理对行政行为社会效益和行政成本关注程度的失衡,使行政费用居高不下.本文以行政管理经济理性和社会理性的统一为出发点,引入了公共部门的行政成本--效益分析模式,并从行政成本效益的构成、行政目标的选择、行政影子价格的确定、行政成本的不确定因素、行政效益的辐射效应等几个方面,对其分析步骤和框架提出了构建设想.揭示了谊分析模式在我国推广过程中的制约因素,同时就其改革措施进行了探讨.     

Efficiency Measurement in Australian Local Government: The Case of New South Wales Municipal Water Services

Australian local government has experienced a series of reforms directed at increasing economic efficiency. An important element in the reform program has been the development of a number of partial indicators of local government service delivery in the states and territories. This paper attempts to augment this literature on performance measurement in Australian local government by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) with holistic indices of allocative and technical efficiency in New South Wales (NSW) municipal water services. It also seeks to incorporate qualitative indicators into efficiency measures. “Best-practice” councils are identified and the underlying causes of municipal water service efficiency are analyzed.     

The Changing Role of Government in Community Services: Issues of Access and Equity to Administrative Review

Governments are increasingly moving to privatise, or contract out many community services and functions previously the responsibility of the public sector. Consumers of community services stand to benefit from this trend toward contracting out. However, it is also apparent that there is a need to ensure that improved avenues of review, redress and safeguards accompany these changes in delivery and decision making.     

Institutionalising a National Approach to Performance Reporting: Lessons from Two Decades of Experience with the Report on Government Services

The Report on Government Services (RoGS) to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is considered an exemplar of benchmarking in a federal system. Published annually since 1997, RoGS provides performance reporting in the form of cross jurisdictional benchmarking on an unprecedented scale and scope. This paper argues ROGS has institutionalised a national approach to performance measurement and reporting that is now at the centre of the COAG reform agenda. The paper examines the processes and institutional structures that explain how RoGS has transformed performance reporting for social infrastructure services. The final section provides a preliminary assessment of the impact of RoGS.     

政府问责制:责任政府的实践形式

政府问责制是责任政府最基本的实践形式,它既是责任政府建设的核心环节,也是责任政府实现的保障机制。目前,我国政府问责制建设还表现出权责不对等、"集体行动"的逻辑、监督双方信息不对称、政府回应不强等问题。我们必须通过完善立法、加强监督与问责制度建设等举措来解决这些问题,进一步完善政府问责制。