This review examines the evidence of the effect of government-funded outcome-based contracts in public human services.

This paper examines transparency and the performance of outsourced government services. It discusses three aspects of outsourcing: value-for-money efficiency, effectiveness of performance, and publicity of performance information, and explores a number of lessons for both government and public sector managers on how to increase the extent of transparency, and thus the quality, of outsourced services.

The working party that produced this report was asked to review the operation of the eServices panel and to recommend changes to improve the way the Victorian government procures ICT services from the industry.

The PPP (public-private partnership) policy experiment has been wonderfully ambiguous and colourful. It has promised just about everything to everybody, from better value for money and on-time delivery, to innovation and reduced pressure on public sector budgets. Indeed, the PPP phenomenon is now a brand for third-way governments. Like Coca-Cola, PPPs are life. But underneath...