Enlightenment of NY govt procurement of public services(2)

COMPETITIVE BIDDING

"The best practice is to have competitive bidding, so you don't give out a contract on an exclusive basis," Brecher said.

"Secondly, to have performance standards in the contracts, so you have standard when someone is doing a good job and when they are not," Brecher added.

On one hand, government procurement of public services can help citizens to get highly specialized and lower-cost services from organizations that have a great deal more expertise, David Van Slyke said.

On the other hand, it is cheaper for governments to contract out these public services to social or non-profit organizations "because you don't need to continue to carry those public personnel even once the services no longer needed," Van Slyke added.

Besides, by using non-profit organizations, "government is in some cases getting the subsidy effect," Van Slyke said. "In other words, non-profits have their own volunteers and private funds... that can be used to supplement the funding of public services through government contracts and funds."

Patrick Malyszek, president of M3 Federal Contract Practice Group, told Xinhua that "the overall result (of government procurement of public services) is tremendous because it actually took away the government, then usually taking away lots of social controls."

BACKUP AND RESERVE CAPACITIES

Brecher suggested that the Chinese government's procurement of public services should be done with detailed preparation, ranging from good vendors committed to their mission to managers within the public sector to manage contacts and set performance standards, from standards written into contracts to resources committed to monitoring, enforcing and even canceling of the contracts.

In other words, the government should have "backup capacity" and "reserve capacity," Brecher noted.

According to Brecher, backup capacity means there is competition so the government can give the contract to other competitors. If there is no competition, "there is reserve capacity within the government to take over the job itself when you have to cancel a contract," he added.

Van Slyke said the Chinese government should be aware that "contracting with community and social organizations is not an easy process. It requires substantial government investments in a legal framework, in a procurement and regulatory framework, in a competitive bidding framework."

Van Slyke noted that in some cases, "non-profit or community-based organizations become so dependent on government for its funding that there really is very little that distinguishes the non-profit from a government in terms of its own mission, focus and authentic expression of values."

"So I think this becomes a challenge both for the Chinese government, especially provincial and local governments, but also for these organizations themselves to create the right balance in terms of their need for revenue, their desire to provide services, but then having to be held accountable to government for that funding and also for the delivery of the services based on certain standards and performance measures," said Van Slyke.

Last but not least, Callahan said he believes every country has its own characteristics, so "there is no one approach that works across all types of services."