Title: The Government and the Private Sector - a Shotgun Wedding or an Inevitable Relationship?
Abstract: SUMMARY Governmental institutions and private surveying-, mapping and GIS companies are working with each other all over the world. Their cooperation, in many cases, is difficult and worsened by mutual distrust, or, at least, natural wariness. Within the cooperation, the typical distribution of the tasks nowadays is: the government, according to its professional considerations and legally valid technical requirements, acquires and finances professional activities and products; appropriate private sector representatives compete and win the work, prepare and deliver the product; in the last stage, the government supervises and quality- controls it, and (following the completion of required corrections by the supplier) accepts the product. Many times, the issue is more complicated, but is based, more or less, on the above formula. Not in all cases however. Sometimes, the private surveyor is the client and the governmental agency supplies the service. In most of these reverse cases, the service is a quality control, confirmation, data supply, legislation, etc., carried out by a governmental supplier whilst being in monopolistic position. Practically, there is no way to overrule or correct the (except by applying to court). It is not too surprising, that many times private surveyors are anxious about this situation. Who knows better? Who is more competent? And why? Each code of ethics calls the supplier to deliver high quality product to the client - within a reasonable time period. The consistent self-reducing trend of the governments makes for a governmental supplier difficult to respect the code. Where can a government find accessible potential to assist? In the private sector! More and more, formerly statutory tasks (like supervising, contribution to legislation, R&D of national infrastructures, confident advising as to internal management procedures, etc.) are acquired from the private sector by the government, conducting more- and more sophisticated, quality-based bidding methods. A global re-distribution of tasks seems to have occurred, raising new kinds of problems and doubts, but hopefully leading to a more balanced relationship between the government and the private sector, and resulting in a high quality production and co-production.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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