Agencification-the creation of autonomous agencies within the public
service-has been occurring in many jurisdictions. It has usually had a
rationale of improving the way in which government works. Generally,
agencies are expected to provide more flexible, performance-oriented,
responsive public services. The purpose of this work is to examine a
particular example of agencification in the Australian Public Service (APS)
and to compare it analytically with similar occurrences elsewhere.
Specifically, it will examine the splitting of the former Department of Social
Security (DSS) into two separate organisations, a policy department and a
service delivery agency operating under a purchaser-provider arrangement,
Centrelink. It will do this in the context of theories of agencification and of
practical experience of agencification elsewhere. It will analyse why
agencification has happened in this case and what the experience has shown,
focusing on the role, governance, accountability and prospects for the new
arrangements. This, the most prominent and substantial case of
agencification in the Australian government, will be compared with the
agencification experience reported in other jurisdictions-the United
Kingdom and New Zealand. It will address why Centrelink came about,
what the outcome has been of the change in institutional arrangements, and
what the likely future is of the Centrelink arrangements. It will show that,
when examined closely, the mechanisms bringing about agencification have
been diverse. However, there are parallels in the experience. This leads to a
conclusion that the current Centrelink arrangements are not stable in the
long term, and some aspects-such as the purchaser-provider
arrangement - should be set aside.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218676 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Rowlands, David, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Management & Policy |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright David Rowlands |
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