Quango

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A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi NGO", where NGO is the acronym for a non-government organization. [1]

Contents

As its original name suggests, a quango is a hybrid form of organization, with elements of both NGOs and public sector bodies. The term is most often applied in the United Kingdom and, to a lesser degree, other countries in the core and middle Anglosphere.

In the UK, the term quango covers different "arm's-length" government bodies, including "non-departmental public bodies" (NDPBs), non-ministerial government departments, and executive agencies. [2]

In its pejorative use, it has been widely applied to public bodies of various kinds, and a variety of backronyms have been used to make the term consistent with this expanded use. The most popular has been "Quasi-autonomous national government organization", often with the acronym modified to "qango" or "QANGO".

Use

Canada

In Canada, quangos are referred to as 'Crown Corporations' or simply 'Crown corps'. As of May 2021 there were 45 Crown corps owned by the Canadian federal government, however many more are owned by each of the provincial governments. Notably electricity providers such as the 'Saskatchewan Power Corporation' a.k.a. SaskPower owned by the province of Saskatchewan and 'Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board' a.k.a. Manitoba Hydro owned by the province of Manitoba.

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is notable for the ubiquity of provincial crown corps with most styled with the prefix Sask- followed by the primary service. The larger Saskatchewan Crown corps have their own Saskatchewan minister with all Saskatchewan Crown corps owned by the Crown Investment Corporation of Saskatchewan which in turn is owned by the provincial government. Some of the most notable Saskatchewan Crown corps are as follows:

  • SaskTel (Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation) providing telecommunications. Notable for the last remaining government owned incumbent telephone provider in Canada.
  • SaskPower (Saskatchewan Power Corporation) providing electricity.
  • SaskEnergy (SaskEnergy Incorporated) providing natural gas.
  • SaskWater (Saskatchewan Water Corporation) providing potable water and sewage services to certain communities.

Ireland

In 2006, there were 832 quangos in the Republic of Ireland – 482 at national and 350 at local level – with a total of 5,784 individual appointees and a combined annual budget of €13 billion. [3]

The Irish majority party, Fine Gael, had promised to eliminate 145 quangos should they be the governing party in the 2016 election. Since coming to power they have reduced the overall number of quangos by 17. This reduction also included agencies which the former government had already planned to remove.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, quangos are referred to as 'Crown Entities', with the shift occurring in the 1980s during a period of neoliberalisation of the state sector. [4] In 1996, there were an estimated 310 quangos in New Zealand, and an additional 2690 school Board of Trustees (similar to the American model of boards of education). [5] Other quangos from 1996 include: "...63 Crown Health Enterprises, 39 tertiary education institutions, 21 Business development boards and 9 Crown Research Institutes. But there were also 71 single crown entities with services ranging from regulatory (e.g. Accounting Standards Review Board, Takeovers Panel) to quasi-judicial (e.g. Police Complaints Authority, Race Relations Conciliator), to the arts (e.g. New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, NZ Film Commission), to social welfare (e.g. Housing Corporation of NZ) and to substantial enterprises (e.g. Auckland International Airport Ltd)." [5]

By 2003, the number of quangos had increased to an estimated 400 (excluding Board of Trustees), with more than 3,000 people sitting on governance boards that were appointed by successive governments. [6] This appointment of people to governance boards has been widely criticised by political parties and political commentators as a form of cronyism. [6] [7] [8] [9]

In 2010, there were 2,607 crown entities (including Board of Trustees) with annual expenditure of $32billion in 2009/2010. [10]

United Kingdom

Despite a 1979 "commitment" from the Conservative Party to curb the growth of non-departmental bodies, their numbers grew rapidly throughout that party's time in power during the 1980s. [11] One UK example is the Forestry Commission, which is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in England.

The Cabinet Office 2009 report on non-departmental public bodies found that there were 766 NDPBs sponsored by the UK government. The number had been falling: there were 827 in 2007 and 790 in 2008. The number of NDPBs had fallen by over 10% since 1997. Staffing and expenditure of NDPBs had increased. They employed 111,000 people in 2009 and spent £46.5 billion, of which £38.4 billion was directly funded by the government. [12]

United States

Use of the term quango is less common in the United States although many US bodies, including Government Sponsored Enterprises, operate in the same fashion. [13] Paul Krugman has stated that the US Federal Reserve is, effectively, "what the British call a quango... Its complex structure divides power between the federal government and the private banks that are its members, and in effect gives substantial autonomy to a governing board of long-term appointees." [14]

Other U.S.-based organizations that fit the original definition of quangos include the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac).

By the broader definition now used in the United Kingdom, there are hundreds of federal agencies that might be classed as quangos.

Indonesia

The Indonesian Ulema Council is considered a quango for its status as an independent, mass organization-like public organization but supported and financed by the state while keeping its status as independent organization outside the Indonesian state organizational system in other side. [15] [16] [17] As a quango, MUI is empowered to issue religious edicts (fatwas) comparable to state laws which are binding upon the Indonesian Muslim population and can exert influence upon state policies, politics, and the economy due to its status and prestige. [16]

History

The term "quasi non-governmental organisation" was created in 1967 by Alan Pifer of the US-based Carnegie Foundation, in an essay on the independence and accountability of public-funded bodies that are incorporated in the private sector. This essay got the attention of David Howell, a Conservative M.P. in Britain, who then organized an Anglo-American project with Pifer, to examine the pros and cons of such enterprises. The lengthy term was shortened to the acronym QUANGO (later lowercased quango) by a British participant to the joint project, Anthony Barker, during one of the conferences on the subject. [18]

It describes an ostensibly non-governmental organisation performing governmental functions, often in receipt of funding or other support from government, [19] By contrast, traditional NGOs mostly get their donations or funds from the public and other organisations that support their cause.

An essential feature of a quango in the original definition was that it should not be a formal part of the state structure. The term was then extended to apply to a range of organisations, such as executive agencies providing (from 1988) health, education and other services. Particularly in the UK, this occurred in a polemical atmosphere in which it was alleged that proliferation of such bodies was undesirable and should be reversed. In this context, the original acronym was often replaced by a backronym spelt out as "quasi-autonomous national government organisation, and often rendered as 'qango' [20] This spawned the related acronym qualgo, a 'quasi-autonomous local government organisation'. [21]

The less contentious term non-departmental public body (NDPB) is often employed to identify numerous organisations with devolved governmental responsibilities. Examples in the United Kingdom include those engaged in the regulation of various commercial and service sectors, such as the Water Services Regulation Authority.

The UK government's definition in 1997 of a non-departmental public body or quango was:

A body which has a role in the processes of national government, but is not a government department or part of one, and which accordingly operates to a greater or lesser extent at arm's length from Ministers. [22]

Criticisms

The Times has accused quangos of bureaucratic waste and excess. [23] In 2005, Dan Lewis, author of The Essential Guide to Quangos, claimed that the UK had 529 quangos, many of which were useless and duplicated the work of others.

The term has spawned the derivative quangocrat; the Taxpayers' Alliance faulted a majority of "quangocrats" for not making declarations of political activity. [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

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In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of national government but are not part of a government department. NDPBs carry out their work largely independently from ministers and are accountable to the public through Parliament; however, ministers are responsible for the independence, effectiveness, and efficiency of non-departmental public bodies in their portfolio.

A Crown entity is an organisation that forms part of New Zealand's state sector established under the Crown Entities Act 2004, a unique umbrella governance and accountability statute. The Crown Entities Act is based on the corporate model where the governance of the organisation is split from the management of the organisation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government agency</span> Organization in a government responsible for specific functions

A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an administration. There is a notable variety of agency types. Although usage differs, a government agency is normally distinct both from a department or ministry, and other types of public body established by government. The functions of an agency are normally executive in character since different types of organizations are most often constituted in an advisory role—this distinction is often blurred in practice however, it is not allowed.

Ministry or department are designations used by first-level executive bodies in the machinery of governments that manage a specific sector of public administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public bodies of the Scottish Government</span>

Public bodies of the Scottish Government are organisations that are funded by the Scottish Government. They form a tightly meshed network of executive and advisory non-departmental public bodies ("quangoes"); tribunals; and nationalised industries. Such public bodies are distinct from executive agencies of the Scottish Government, as unlike them they are not considered to be part of the Government and staff of public bodies are not civil servants, although executive agencies are listed in the Scottish Government's directory of national public bodies alongside other public bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministry of Health (New Zealand)</span> New Zealand government ministry

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A regulatory agency or independent agency is a government authority that is responsible for exercising autonomous dominion over some area of human activity in a licensing and regulating capacity.

Saskatchewan Power Corporation, operating as SaskPower, is the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada. Established in 1929 by the provincial government, it serves more than 550,000 customers and manages nearly $13 billion in assets. SaskPower is a major employer in the province with over 3,100 permanent full-time staff located in approximately 70 communities.

A government-organized non-governmental organization (GONGO) is a non-governmental organization that was set up or sponsored by a government in order to further its political interests and mimic the civic groups and civil society at home, or promote its international or geopolitical interests abroad.

SaskEnergy Incorporated is a Crown corporation of the Saskatchewan government, responsible for delivering and selling natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. The company owns 70,000 kilometres of distribution pipelines, 15,000 kilometres of transmission pipelines, and serves over 405,000 customers. It is governed by The SaskEnergy Act and is the designated subsidiary of Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan.

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Crown corporations in Canada are government organizations with a mixture of commercial and public-policy objectives. They are directly and wholly owned by the Crown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UK Commission for Employment and Skills</span>

The UK Commission for Employment and Skills was a non-departmental public body that provided advice on skills and employment policy to the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations.

Quango or Qango may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Executive agency</span> Part of a UK government department

An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive. Executive agencies are "machinery of government" devices distinct both from non-ministerial government departments and non-departmental public bodies, each of which enjoy legal and constitutional separation from ministerial control. The model has been applied in several other countries.

Following the 2010 United Kingdom general election, the UK Government under the Cameron–Clegg coalition announced plans to curb public spending through the abolition of a large number of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations (quangos). This was styled in the national press as a "bonfire of the quangos", making reference to Girolamo Savonarola's religiously inspired Bonfire of the Vanities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ISM Canada</span> Canadian technology service company

ISM is an information technology service company based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The main company office is currently located in the ISM Building which was built by the University of Regina in 1991 to suit ISM's needs. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyndryl Canada Limited, that serves both public and private sector organizations.

The Union Modernisation Fund (UMF) was a fund established in 2005 by the Government of the United Kingdom with the aim of providing financial support to British trade unions by supporting "innovative modernisation projects which contribute to a transformational change in the organisational effectiveness of a trade union". The fund was overseen by the independent quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation (quango) the Union Modernisation Fund Supervisory Board, which was part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Three rounds of the UMF were held, with a large amount of money disseminated to trade unions. The Conservatives criticised the fund, calling it a way to keep the unions "sweet", and the then shadow business secretary Alan Duncan called on Gordon Brown to scrap the fund. Only three rounds of funding were ever held, and the board was abolished in 2010 as part of the UK government's quango reforms. In total the fund gave £7 million to trade unions throughout its existence.

References

  1. ↑ Pifer, Alan. The Quasi-Non-Governmental Organisation. Appendix to D.C. Hague, W.J.M. Mackenzie and A. Barker, Public Policy and Private Interests: The Insriturions 01 Compromise, London, Macrnillan, 1975. p.381.
  2. ↑ "Departments, agencies & public bodies – Inside Government". Gov.UK. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  3. ↑ According to a survey carried out by the think tank Tasc in 2006. "Focus: What's wrong with the quangos?" — The Sunday Times newspaper article, 29 October 2006
  4. ↑ Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. "What are Crown entities?". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  5. 1 2 Wistrich, Enid (1999), Flinders, Matthew V.; Smith, Martin J. (eds.), "Quangos in New Zealand", Quangos, Accountability and Reform: The Politics of Quasi-Government, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 84–92, doi:10.1007/978-1-349-27027-9_7, ISBN   978-1-349-27027-9 , retrieved 27 September 2021
  6. 1 2 Newman, Dr Muriel. "The Great Quango Hunt". nzcpr.com. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  7. ↑ "mccully.co.nz – 25 July 2008". scoop.co.nz. 25 July 2008. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  8. ↑ "Articles About ACC". ACCforum. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  9. ↑ "Editorial: This one's not a quango, it's a good example". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  10. ↑ Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. "Crown entities". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  11. ↑ Watts, Duncan (2003). Understanding US/UK Government and Politics. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 164.
  12. ↑ Gay, Oonagh. "Quangos". House of Commons Library Research. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  13. ↑ Watts, Duncan (2003). Understanding US/UK Government and Politics. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 321.
  14. ↑ Paul R. Krugman, 1997, The Age of Diminished Expectations: U.S. Economic Policy in the 1990s, MIT Press, p. 99.
  15. ↑ Indrayana, Denny (22 December 2016). Sodikin, Amir (ed.). "Fatwa MUI, Hukum Positif, dan Hukum Aspiratif". KOMPAS.com (in Indonesian). Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  16. 1 2 Arifianto, Alexander R (8 December 2020). "Indonesian Ulema Council edges closer to the centre of power". East Asia Forum. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  17. ↑ Abdillah, Ali; Novianto, Rico (2019). "LEMBAGA QUASI NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION (QUANGO) DALAM SISTEM KETATANEGARAAN INDONESIA: MAJELIS ULAMA INDONESIA". Jurnal Hukum Dan Pembangunan (in Indonesian). 49 (1): 110–136. doi: 10.21143/jhp.vol49.no1.1913 . S2CID   159286557.
  18. ↑ Letter: On Quasi-Public Organizations; Whence Came the Quango, and Why – New York Times Opinion page by Alan Pifer
  19. ↑ Wettenhall, R 1981 'The quango phenomenon', Current Affairs Bulletin 57(10):14–22.]
  20. ↑ "You've Been Quangoed!" by Roland Watson
  21. ↑ "New body's waste plea", The Times , 18 April 1986: Gale Document Number:CJ117886677. Retrieved 5 April 2008. "London Waste Regulation Authority, the first 'qualgo' formed after abolition of the Greater London Council...The new body is a joint board of councilors from London boroughs."
  22. ↑ "Public Bodies 1997, "Introduction"". Archived from the original on 9 December 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2006.
  23. ↑ "Waste mounts as £100 billion web of quangos duplicates work".
  24. ↑ "Taxpayers' Alliance hits out at "quangocrat gravy train"". CityAM. Limited. 6 June 2016.
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