Quote:
Originally Posted by Alessio
Because they often lack responsibility/accountability, a proper long-term motivation to keep them from slacking off and they don't operate in a competitive environment.
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I wouldnt be so sure about this. I must acknowledge that I am somewhat prejudiced as I am now a Commonwealth public servant.
At least in Australia, government departments have strict chains of accountability and responsibility which is enforced through freedom of information law and the principle of responsible government.
Sometimes I wonder that government activity and 'frank and fearless advice' is constrained by those FoI laws: if adverse advice is given to the Government, and then made public, the Department is placed in the position of embarrasing it's Minister, which causes ovbious problems for the relationship of trust between the two.
I was talking about this to friends of mine who work in the private sector (actually, in banks), and they actually envied me because they also are burdened by large amounts of documentation should there ever be civil action by either their clients or their customers, who then have to provide those documents prior to court cases.
Also, just because someone is a public servant, doesnt mean that they are a slacker. I work longer hours than most people in the private sector. Annectodal evidence of other (public & private sector) graduates in Canberra would suggest that private sector grads work essentially the same hours. Whether they are as equally productive in those hours or not is much more difficult to measure.
I think, however, that competition is the key factor. A business has to keep looking to make itself more efficient by cutting costs, innovating, adopting new technology, better targeting its products to their customer's needs, because if they dont then they loose money to their competitors. Governments dont really face this - if you dont like the way a country is being run, you cant just switch your subscription to an alternative government. You have to move countries (at least), and that can have significant cost attached to it.
The way most (western) government agencies are funded through annual budgets is that they have great incentives to spend all of the available funds for their purpose, and no less. There is little incentive to save here, pinch pennies there, make things work smarter elsewhere etc. There are big disencentives for underspending as then the department will loose funding the following year, there are also disencentives for overspending (but this is less of a problem for the department - it may embarrass the Minister during Senate estimates/Question Time however).
Competition really is the key.