Public Administration Challenges That Lead to Failure of the Government - Coursework Example

Public administration University Student Id Course Date Introduction Any government has the responsibility of making sure that the wellbeing of its citizens is guaranteed. Citizens expect their government to have strong social and economic foundation necessary for delivering the necessary services. There are public administrators who are responsible for delivering the necessary public services such as education and health care services among others. The quality of the services offered in the public administration is what determines the satisfaction of the citizens. Citizens collectively contribute towards the funding of the public services through taxation hence they expect the government to provide the appropriate services. The government has the objective of improving the national productivity through ensuring the provision of the necessary services to the citizens (Howard, 2008). However, public administration has been facing numerous challenges that lead to failure of the government to provide the necessary services to its citizens. The Australian government has been working towards improving its competitiveness in the international level. This has been possible through enhancing political accountability, independence, and flexibility. The flexibility aspect of the government is crucial in the process of making sure that the necessary adjustments are done to cope with the changes taking place globally. The political accountability is vital in ensuring that there is effectiveness in the use of the public funds (AGRAGA, 2010). This essay is exploring the commonwealth government in the new federalism to provide the necessary interventions and forms of public management to assist the government in achieving the set objectives. Responsibilities and roles of commonwealth government in new federalism The commonwealth government has the responsibility of providing the necessary public services like education and health. The support provided by the commonwealth government to the citizens is primarily based on the needs of the people where their interests are paramount. The necessary measures are put in place to ensure that there are evaluations to assess the efficiency of the support being provided. For instance, commonwealth exerts influence over the providers of education services to ensure accountability in the use of the public funds. The primary aim of the commonwealth government is to enhance productivity through ensuring political accountability. It is through the political accountability that the funds allocated can be used for the intended purpose. The commonwealth government ensures that the relevant stakeholders are engaged in the process of developing the fund allocation model (Brown and Bellamy, 2007). The engagement of the stakeholders is crucial in the process of ensuring that the funds are allocated according to the needs of the people and that appropriate amount of funds are allocated. The commonwealth government also has the role of making sure that there is efficiency in the use of the funds allocated. Besides, it has the responsibility of making sure that the citizens are provided with the essential services in a way that is transparent and open to promoting accountability. However, there is a continued misuse of the funds in the provision of the services as the public administrators who are responsible for safeguarding the public funds are not accountable. For instance, currently the commonwealth raises around 80% of the revenue but it is responsible for around 60% of the expenditure (Twomey and Withers, 2007). This is a clear indication that there is a need for improvement in the accountability in the use of the public funds hence commonwealth has the role of making sure that it is accountable for the money spent. However, the responsibilities and the roles of various levels of the commonwealth government and the states are actually not well defined. Since there is no clarity concerning the roles of the commonwealth government, some Hoc arrangement has resulted into, which have led to the rise of the sub-optimal policy in important areas such as in the human services as well as in the development of the infrastructure. Moreover, the ambiguity of the commonwealth government has made its accountability to be unclear, whereby the inhibited incentives whose aim is to produce a good policy has actually confounded the effectiveness of the commonwealth government thus affecting the revenue allocation (Public Policy Brief, 2014). Therefore, there is need to structure the state responsibilities in order to make them clear and distinct. Also, the correct incentives should be established so as to provide support to the development of the sound policy. Moreover, the commonwealth governments are usually of great significance to the lives of the people in the states of Australia and mostly in the Northern Territory. For instance, the commonwealth governments in most cases they provide social amenities to the Australian citizens and also they regulate land services in the country. In addition, the most common thing about all the commonwealth governments is that they all practice state legislation, whereby it stipulates various activities that a state or even a territory needs the governments to perform (Silver, 2010). In general, the commonwealth governments usually possess great autonomy even though they can be easily dissolved in a case when the state regards its measures to be inappropriate. However, every commonwealth government usually employs staffs who provide government services to the citizens, whereby the activities of the staff are determined by the counselors who are elected in order to represent their respective communities. In addition, the counselors usually introduce the council policies and therefore they make decisions concerning various issues by basing on the council policies. Moreover, regulation is actually a significant aspect of the commonwealth government, since the commonwealth government conducts various regulatory tasks which are quite hard for the state government to perform as a result of their varying nature. Some of the regulatory tasks which are usually performed by the commonwealth governments include the health inspection, developmental approval and also building inspection among the others (Brown, 2004). Another importance of the commonwealth governments is the maintenance of the general health of the Australian citizens which has been reflected in various activities such as the immunization, drainage, waste disposal and the public toilets among the others. In addition, the commonwealth governments also provide some community services which include the child care as well as the recreational facilities which parking grounds and sports grounds. Furthermore, the commonwealth governments always put into consideration its wealth in its process of encouraging the tourism activity. Forms of public management to help in achieving government objectives There are various forms of public management that can help in achieving the set objectives of government. These forms of public management can include managing the growth and stability of economy, and efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency and effectiveness The commonwealth governments should actually try to be effective as well as efficient in order to achieve its objectives. In addition, through an effective management, the commonwealth governments are able to maintain the aspect of transparency in monitoring its programs. Moreover, making sure that the government services are delivered to the citizens at a cost which is low is usually desirable since provides funds for other services. Furthermore, the aspect of efficiency in the management of the commonwealth governments ensures that there is proper allocation of the resources. Also, the commonwealth governments are supposed to select the most efficient policy through which the communities accrue a lot of benefits (Brown and Bellamy, 2007). Importantly, the gains of efficiency should be accepted by all the people not only by the commonwealth governments but also in the private sectors in order to improve the standards of living. The process of improving efficiency usually involves the reduction of the production cost, whereby the cost-effectiveness needs many concerns on the costs of direct programs such as the administration. Managing the growth and stability of economy Commonwealth government is required to ensure that the stability of the markets is maintained in order to manage the economy in general. The main aim of the common governments should be facilitating a longer economic development as well as keeping the inflation level low. However, the commonwealth government always have a significant impact on incentives which have an effect on the innovation and investment. In addition, the economy management is actually made easy by putting into place a sound policy framework (CIE, 2012). The commonwealth government should have a balance sheet that is strong since its state is usually the major determinant for the costs of borrowing. Moreover, the process of restoring a balance sheet which is poor results into the reduction of the government services as well as laying high burdens to the taxpayers. It is through properly managing stability and growth poverty can be eradicated through providing opportunities to the people. However, fairness and equity are necessary for the process of redistributing the resources for ensuring growth and stability of the economy. The interventions There are some interventions that can be introduced in the process of facilitating cooperative federalism to eliminate duplication and wastage. Regulatory interventions are among the best interventions that can be introduced as they entail supporting the effectiveness of markets. Introducing good regulatory interventions is important in the process of recognizing roles that are played by the rule of law and the reputation of business (Hollander and Patapan, 2007). The regulatory interventions are necessary for helping the government achieve effectiveness and efficiency in the utilization of the public funds. The regulations are important in determining the utilization of the resources. The necessary regulations can be put in place to address the issue of accountability in the management of public funds. This can be possible through coming up with the necessary policies for ensuring transparency in the use of public funds. Clarity of the responsibility and roles of the government is another important intervention for eliminating waste and facilitating cooperative federalism. Being clear on the roles of the government can help in improving service delivery. The services that need to be provided by the government can be clearly outlined to make the relevant arm of government responsible. Lack of clarity can cause failure in delivering the essential services hence clarity can enhance accountability (National Commission of Audit, 2015). The commonwealth government is usually based the rational analysis and principles while deciding the strategies that can work best to deliver the necessary services to the citizens. There are some roles and responsibilities that are not clear in the Australian government and can include the human services such as disability care, health, aged care, education, and housing. Besides, there is the need for clarity in the regulation and planning of infrastructure like roads, ports and roads hence there is the need for clarity. The interests of the commonwealth can include improving the health condition through optimizing the patients’ number in the hospitals. The interest of the states is to increase the number of the patients in the private clinics as they are funded by commonwealth (Gallop, 2011). As a result, there are numerous inefficiencies that are being experienced in the health sector where the patients are being treated in a way that is inappropriate. This can be associated with the lack of clarity on the roles between the state and commonwealth. Clarifying the roles can be important in ensuring democratic accountability hence in case of failure to deliver to the expectations the party to blame can easily be identified. Besides, the efficiency of the government in the utilization of the public funds can be achieved through ensuring that there is clarity in the roles and responsibilities. Conclusion Public administration is important in any government in the process of making sure that the essential services are delivered to the citizens. It is through proper management of the public funds that accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness can be guaranteed with the aim of improving the national productivity. The commonwealth government in most cases ensure that the Australian communities get access to the basic services, and also it establishes social cohesion between the local communities (Twomey and Withers, 2007). However, the commonwealth governments usually obtain its finance from various sources such as from the charges of car parking, fines, license fees and also council service charges among the others. Since the revenue for the commonwealth governments is always limited to the population as well as to the state restrictions, then the subsidies from the commonwealth become necessary to the governments. For instance, subsidies are usually of great significance to a country which is large in terms of the area coverage although it is less populated. References Brown, A.J. and Bellamy, J. eds (2007), Federalism and Regionalism in Australia: New Approaches, New Institutions, Canberra, ANU E Press. Brown, A.J. (2004), ‘One Continent, Two Federalisms: Rediscovering the Original Meanings of the Australian Federal Political Ideas’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 39, 4, pp. 485-504. CIE (2012), Impacts of Commonwealth public sector job cuts on the ACT, report prepared for Select Committee on Estimates 2012-13 ACT Legislative Assembly, Centre for International Economics, Canberra and Sydney. Gallop, G. (2011), How Healthy is Australian Federalism? Papers on Parliament, No. 56, July, Canberra, Parliament of Australia. Hollander, R. and Patapan, H. (2007), ‘Pragmatic Federalism: Australian Federalism from Hawke to Howard’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 42, 2.  Howard, J. (2008), Address to the Millennium Forum, Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney, 20 August 2007. See: http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/preview.php?did=15309 And http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2007/election/wilkins.html (accessed 5 February 2015). National Commission of Audit (2015), Reforming the Federation, available on-line at: http://www.ncoa.gov.au/report/appendix-vol-1/8-reforming-federation.html. Silver, H. (2010), ‘Getting the best out of federalism—the role of the Productivity Commission and the limits of national approaches’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 69, no. 3, p. 327. Public Policy Brief (2014), Competitive Federalism. Available on-line at: http://www.cmaxadvisory.com/public-policy-briefs/competitive-federalism (accessed 5 February 2015). Reform of Australian Government Administration (AGRAGA) (2010) Ahead of the Game: Advisory Group on the Reform of Australian Government Administration, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. * Twomey, A. and Withers, G. (2007), Australia’s Federal Future: Delivering Growth and Prosperity, a report for the Council for the Australian Federation.  Available on-line at: http://www.caf.gov.au/Documents/AustraliasFederalFuture.pdf (accessed 17 December 2014). Read More