Quango

Vorlage:Otherusesof Quango or qango is an acronym (variously spelt out as quasi non-governmental organisation, quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation, and quasi-autonomous national government organisation) used notably in the United Kingdom, Ireland and elsewhere to label colloquially an organisation to which government has devolved power. In the United Kingdom the official term is "non-departmental public body" or NDPB.

History

The term 'quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization' was created in 1967 by the Carnegie Foundation's Alan Pifer in an essay on independence and accountability in public-funded bodies incorporated in the private sector. This term was shortened to 'quango' by Anthony Barker, a British participant during a follow-up conference on the subject. It describes an ostensibly non-governmental organisation performing governmental functions, often in receipt of funding or other support from government, while mainstream NGOs mostly get their donations or funds from the public and other organizations that support their cause. Numerous quangos were created from the 1980s onwards. Examples in the United Kingdom include those engaged in the regulation of various commercial and service sectors, such as the Water Services Regulation Authority.

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 (see below). This spawned the related acronym qualgo, a 'quasi-autonomous local government organisation'.

The less contentious term non-departmental public body (NDPB) is often employed to identify numerous organisations with devolved governmental responsibilities. The UK government's definition in 1997 of a non-departmental public body or quango was: Vorlage:Quote

Use

United Kingdom

The use in the UK of executive agencies charged with service delivery functions has arisen alongside so-called non-departmental public bodies. These agencies do not usually have a legal identity separate from that of their parent department; and, unless they have trading fund status, their accounts form part of the accounts of the parent department.Vorlage:Citation needed The National Health Service also has bodies called special health authorities, technically neither NDPBs nor executive agencies. The Department of Health chooses to designate all three types as "arm's length bodies".

Network Rail, responsible for the UK's railway infrastructure, may be regarded as a quango, subject, however, to the question of whether the entity is, as its formal structure might suggest, a non-governmental private company, or a state-owned enterprise.Vorlage:Citation needed

According to the Tax Payers Alliance, tax payers funded 1,162 Quangos at a cost of nearly £64bn; equivalent to £2,550 per household. Since the coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats was formed in May 2010, over 80 of such public bodies funded by government have been abolished under Conservative plans to reduce the size of the public sector, as a route to reducing the overall budget deficit.

In October 2010 the government released full plans concerning the future of quangos in the United Kingdom. This divided quangos into four categories: Abolished, abolished with reservations (with other organs of state performing their function) or quangos which are to to be merged. The future of a number of organisations was left undecided. Quangos not forming part of the list were saved.