<em>Public Administration Review</em> | ASPA Journal | Wiley Online Library A central aim of contracting is to introduce competition into public service delivery. Public organizations are facing calls to generate more competition for their contracts, yet there is conflicting...

Check out the quick explainer in the post link and you can read the full (open access) article here: doi.org/10.1111/puar...

More competition is not always better for complex public contracts | King's College London New study finds that highly competitive markets can lead to tighter controls and higher costs in public services.

Is more competition always better for public service contracting? My new article in @pareview.bsky.social suggests not. Competition leads to more costly and rigid contract management. www.kcl.ac.uk/news/more-co...

@kingsbschool.bsky.social
#publicservices #outsourcing #government

Yes, we should go for coffee sometime!

Coming to the end of my second week at @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social. Met so many lovely colleages in KBS and beyond. Will miss my colleagues at @unibirmingham.bsky.social but hope we can carry on collaborating!

Fascinating and packed starting session of #P17 at #IRSPM25 - enjoying hearing about contract managers adopting relational contracting techniques, the impact of New Zealand’s soft procurement regulations, and how we can conceptualise procurement as state infrastructure. Standing room only now!

Fired up by the morning at #Notwestminster and stories of councillors as community workers in Test Valley, community-led housing developments in Frome, and developing local People’s Charters. Loving being back in Huddersfield, a place from my childhood and reconnecting with this place.

These problems are common to so many government technology projects, but also other contracts for complex programmes and public services. Governments get locked into relationships and don’t have the expertise or confidence to monitor or challenge suppliers’ behaviour.

Post Office Horizon scandal: four reasons why the government’s model for outsourcing is broken The government not only outsources the computer systems to companies like Fujitsu but all knowledge about how to operate them, maintain them and fix them when they go wrong.

This is my original piece for @uk.theconversation.com about what the scandal tells us about the UK’s broken model of outsourcing. theconversation.com/post-office-...

I've been continuing to write about the Post Office Horizon Scandal and how contracting and management problems underpin what went wrong. It's beginning to look like the same problems are being repeated with the project to replace the Horizon system. blog.bham.ac.uk/socialscienc...

Finally making the jump from X. Pleased to find so many great PA folks over here already and hopeful that we can recreate the community that Twitter used to be. Found a few public policy/admin/management starter packs, but looking for more accounts and starter packs to follow, so recs welcome!