Turbulent changes at the global, regional, national, and subnational levels are the hallmark of the opening years of the 21 century. The speed and intensity of the changes are perceived as a beginnings of globalization era. The Globalization need t...
Turbulent changes at the global, regional, national, and subnational levels are the hallmark of the opening years of the 21 century. The speed and intensity of the changes are perceived as a beginnings of globalization era. The Globalization need the government reform.
Now, we must think of the issue of government reform proactively. Of course, the government reform has been and is one of the important government policies in local as well as central level, and will be. It is a fact that central government has been implementing the various strategies and methods for government reform around three pivotal schemes : slim organization, effective organization, and improvement of the quality of public services.
Reducing the cost of service delivery is the primary reason that local governments give for their interest in private sector service delivery. Yet there are more factors that influence the final decision. This paper focuses on service delivery through contracts with the private sector. The decision to focus this paper on contract service delivery was prompted by the knowledge that contracting is clearly the local government alternative service delivery approach of choice and that local governments are taking sophisticated approaches to ensure that the locality benefits from the arrangement.
Contract service delivery, also know as purchase of service contracting, outsourcing, and contracting out is, defined as: "a binding agreement under which a local government pays a private firm or nonprofit organization to provide a specific level and quality of service" As the definition implies, contract service delivery involves relationships with private sector organizations. Contract service delivery does not include intergovernmental and joint powers agreements between two or more political jurisdictions. Also excluded form the definition of contract service delivery is "franchise" type arrangements, where local governments grant private sector organizations the right to provide particular services in particular geographic areas. Contract service delivery can involve services that have previously been directly provided by local governments and well as services that have never been directly provided. Contract service delivery and involve a portion or the or the totality of a local government service.
This study was proceeded by the literature study and the descriptive research. The contents analysis were proceeded through the literature study. The descriptive research attempts to describe reality of the administrative reform and discover facts about public servants' perception.
For perception analysis, this research was employed with the questionnaire. The questionnaire includes a set of written questions that public servants respond to directly on the form itself without the aid of an interviewer. Ratings were made on open form and a 5-point Likert scale - a measurement scale consisting of a series of statements follows by five response alternatives.
This questionnaire was distributed and collected by mail. The target population of this study was public servants in 20 local governments. The sampling frame in this study was based on the government statistics. 400 public servants were randomly selected from within 20 local governments including 10 cities and 10 counties. This sampling procedure resulted in usable return from 280 (response rate of 70.0 percent). This rate was very high. This result was possible by the aids of the public servants charging of the organization department. Data analysis in this study was employed by spss/win.
The evidences of this study support the interesting results as below.
First, the local government choose the contracting-out for lower service delivery costs and increased service quality, resulted in the competitive organization.
Second, the public servants indicate the problems of the law and institution system, managing and monitoring contracts and the reduction of public accountability for government service delivery
Third, the private sector wants the enlargement of contracting out for public service deliverly. And so, the extent of bidding competition is high.
Fourth, until now the potential for fraud and corruption dosen't arise out owing to the contracting-out.
Fifth, the public servants question the accountability awareness of the private sector, and are anxious to the excessive profit-seeking.
Finally, the public servants deny the contracting-out because of the displacement and status unstability.
These findings are in the expected directions. Nevertheless, the results of the current study indicate where corrective actions are necessary.
Therefore, this study suggests that the transparency and open procedure have been made and the efforts to stabilize the awareness and behaviors and traits of the organization-wide members to the contracting-out are needed.
In sum, local government interest in private sector service delivery remains high. This interest is found in local governments regardless of population size, geographic division, or metro status. The primary reasons given by local governments for this continued interest are internal attempts to reduce service delivery costs and external fiscal pressures. Local governments make use of a variety of internal officials and staff and external groups and individuals to assist in evaluating the feasibility of private sector service delivery. Once undertaken, local governments also use a variety of techniques to help insure the successful implementation of private sector service delivery. Public-private competition is more pronounced in local governments than previously suspected.