1. World problems
  2. Limited accountability of public services

Limited accountability of public services

  • Obscure accountability for public services
  • Inhibited official accountability
  • Inadequate accountability of public sector management
  • Non-accountability of state-controlled enterprises

Incidence

A UK computer journalist has reported on the way Government and corporate bureaucrats repeatedly waste taxpayers' money by repeating the same basic mistakes with computer systems, and how there is then no proper auditing system to ensure that lessons are learned and mistakes not repeated. He analyses examples such as the UK National Health Service, which spent £500 million on computers to reduce staff costs, coinciding with a 40% increase in the number of administrators. In every case examined, the same pattern emerges: the hiring of expensive consultants to design a complex, over-ambitious, one-off system, which fails to allow for the requirements and capacities of its users; overtight schedules; an almost psychotic reluctance to admit that things have gone wrong. Then finally, when the system crashes, no one is found to be accountable, and no one is concerned to learn why it went wrong.

Claim

It is the lack of accountability and the resultant profusion of corruption, bloated bureaucracies, under-performing parasites and abuse of power that has become a common denominator among developing countries, from single party left-wing regimes to conservative autocracies.

Broader

Narrower

Aggravates

Mismanagement
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Aggravated by

Reduced by

Related

Strategy

Value

Limitedness
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Inadequacy
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Inhibition
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Obscurity
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SDG

Sustainable Development Goal #8: Decent Work and Economic GrowthSustainable Development Goal #12: Responsible Consumption and ProductionSustainable Development Goal #16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions

Metadata

Database
World problems
Type
(F) Fuzzy exceptional problems
Subject
  • Government » Government
  • Government » Nation state » Nation state
  • Government » Officials
  • Government » Public
  • Management » Management
  • Societal problems » Inadequacy
  • Content quality
    Presentable
     Presentable
    Language
    English
    Last update
    Oct 22, 2022