by Paul O'Brien
Wednesday 23 May 2007
APSE holds a special forum today where we present our ideas on competitiveness to a number of invited senior local government officers and engage them in a series of facilitated discussions to gather their input on the subject.
Our concern is that the forces of darkness continue to push the outdated and failed notion of contestability as a method of improving performance in the public sector. These dinosaurs really haven't learned anything from the failures of CCT or the success of Best Value and CPA. They still think that a lowest price contest at a given moment in time will guarantee value for money and sustained improvement in the long term.
Our alternative is around a model which drives continuous improvement and on-going efficiency by rigorous challenge from elected members. Whilst we don't finalise the paper on the day we get loads of ideas and general approval of what we are attempting to do.
