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The Pros and Cons of Contracting Out In The Public Sector Essay

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Contracting Out In The Public Sector

Introduction

Many public agencies in recent years have followed the trend of privatization, or contracting-out. Activities and functions that were once performed, or services that were once provided, by public employees are now being performed by private sector employees (Lyons). Vehicle towing, health services, police protection, and solid waste collection are among the many services and functions that government has contracted out. A survey in 1995 that was sent to mayors or city managers of America's largest cities (based on population) revealed that only three of the 66 cities that responded to the survey had not privatized any city services. …show more content…

He has also privatized trash collection, printing, and street repair. By doing so, he Ahas reduced city staff other than public safety personnel by 30 [%] over two years.@ http://www.ncpa.org/pd/private/privb3.html The employees from the contracted-out company have replaced city staff.

Advantages Of Hiring Contract Employees.

Why is contracting out so attractive to a public agency? Privatizing has its advantages that represent benefits to the agency.

Although reducing costs and improving services have been cited as the most important reasons services are privatized by agencies, contracting out offers the attractiveness of hiring a contract employee over a public employee. This occurs because of the apparent advantages offered by such options (Dilger et al. 23). Some advantages of hiring a contract employee over a civil servant are as follows:

Hiring And Training Costs Are Reduced

Reduction Of Hiring Costs Hiring a civil service employee involves recruiting, testing, interviewing, and selecting a candidate or candidates for given positions. This process is an exhaustive one, which can last for weeks and months, from the initial recruitment to the final selection of a candidate to the position. This long process can amount to thousands of dollars in expenditures. The costs incurred by these steps in the hiring process result from compensation of staff for thousands of additional hours associated with

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