Beyond the Search for Competition in Social Service Contracting

Lamothe, Meeyoung; Lamothe, Scott

doi:10.1177/0275074008316557

Cited by 40 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…In fact, DCF guidelines encourage competitive solicitation even for exempted services. Still, most such contracts are noncompetitively procured, although use of competitive procurement has increased recently (M. Lamothe & Lamothe, 2009). The most common competitive procurement techniques used by the Department are "Requests for Proposals" (RFPs) and "Invitations to Negotiate" (ITNs).…”

Section: Dcf Contractingmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Competitive Is “Competitive” Procurement in the Social Services?

Lamothe

2014

The American Review of Public Administration

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The scholarship on contracting generally argues that markets for social services are weak and lacking in competition. Using data gathered from Florida's largest social service agency, the Department of Children and Families, this article adds to the discussion by constructing a more rigorous measure of competition that accounts for the quality of bidding entities. The findings indicate that while the measures used in earlier studies align reasonably well with the raw number of initial responders to competitive solicitations, they tend to overestimate competition when the quality component is included in the analysis. That is, social service markets may be even weaker than previously reported. Furthermore, an examination of the relationship between competition and performance fails to find a significant association.

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Section: Dcf Contractingmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Competitive Is “Competitive” Procurement in the Social Services?

Lamothe

2014

The American Review of Public Administration

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“…These managerial concerns lead to emphasis on topics such as process efficiency (Sherman, 1991); strategic long-term buyer-seller relationships for low prices (Rendon, 2005), determining optimal relationships in public-private arrangements (Bloomfield, 2006), procurement official professionalism (Snider, 1996;Kelman, 1990), and agency capacity (Schooner, 2004). Also of interest is the unique nature of the public procurement "market" and how economic efficiencies may be achieved within it (Kelman, 2006;Lamothe & Lamothe, 2009) through mechanisms such as auctions (Byrd, 2001).…”

Section: Rosenbloom's Management-politics-law Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Procurement: Public Administration and Public Service Perspectives

Snider

Rendon

2012

Journal of Public Affairs Education

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Why is public procurement not a major topic in public administration education programs? While many scholars and practitioners acknowledge its importance, most master's degree programs in public administration do not. In this paper we document this discrepancy, investigate its causes, and provide two remedies to place public procurement more squarely in the educational mainstream. The first entails a description of public procurement from wellestablished public administration perspectives, which illustrates how closely public procurement is aligned with the field's traditional functions and issues. The second analyzes public procurement in the context of the "public service values" orientation of NASPAA's accreditation standards, which indicates the extent to which these values are inherently accounted for and manifested in agency procurement policies, processes, and practices. Thus, public administration might achieve a deeper and broader understanding of public service values by paying more attention to public procurement in its education programs. We conclude with recommendations for public administration schools that may want to (a) incorporate public procurement content in existing master's degree courses; (b) add a public procurement course; or (c) adopt a public procurement concentration for the master's degree.Public procurement occupies a problematical position in American public administration. While its importance is evident both in practice and in the scholarly literature, schools of public administration largely ignore it; only a few offer any courses, much less programs, in public procurement. Roughly 30 years ago, Phillip Cooper (1980) noted this condition when he called public administration's attention to the importance of procurement. Twenty years ago, MacManus and Watson (1990) called for procurement to be included explicitly in public budgeting and finance courses. Ten years ago, Khi Thai (2001) noted that, despite its importance, procurement content was not evident in public administration programs. Today, we observe similar conditions and make a similar call. We then conducted word searches on course titles and course descriptions (typically contained in either Word, pdf, or html files) for required and elective courses in order to locate courses with content in budgeting/financial management, public personnel management, information management, and public procurement. The following search terms were used: (a) for budgeting and financial managementbudget*, finance*, fisc*, fund*; (b) for public personnel management-personnel, human; people; (c) for information technology-information; computers; technolog*; and (d) for public procurementprocur*, contract*, purchas*, outsource*, privat*, project manag*. Four programs did not have web pages that listed either course titles or course descriptions. JPAE 18(2), 327-348 328 Journal of Public Affairs EducationFor public procurement-related courses, each time one of the search terms was located, we reviewed the course description to judge th...

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“…For instance, scholars report that true competition rarely exists, especially in social service provider markets, contracting governments as principals are often unable or unwilling to competitively procure and/or thoroughly monitor vendors to reap the benefits of marketized systems, and management capacities dwindle rather than flourish in times of increasing privatization (DeHoog, 1984(DeHoog, , 1990Kramer & Grossman, 1987;Donahue, 1989;Kettl, 1993;Smith & Lipsky, 1993;Sclar, 2000;Van Slyke, 2003;Lamothe & Lamothe, 2009). …”

Section: Agent Problems and The Past Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the data regarding the exact magnitude of such decrease are not available, Lamothe and Lamothe (2009) report the family safety-related social service contracting administered by the Florida Department of Children 4 Budget figures include not only outsourced child welfare services but also the DCF family safety program office operations and the direct services still provided by the department such as child welfare legal services and child protective investigations. Funding per child figures are calculated by dividing the total child welfare program budget by the number of children and young adults receiving services at the end of the same fiscal year (OPPAGA 06-50).…”

Section: Redesigning the Hollow State In Floridamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contracting preference was given toward well-financed, professional agencies over small, community-based organizations because, by and large, big corporations are equipped with better internal controls of corporate finance, deeper cash reserves, and larger administrative and programmatic capacities to deliver contracted services (Kramer, 1994;Lamothe & Lamothe, 2009). As the state continued its privatization with greater emphasis on competitive bidding, contract accountability, and program effectiveness, these large vendors responded successfully to the demands of the state.…”

Section: Downloaded By [Stony Brook University] At 01:25 02 November mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Redesigning the Hollow State: A Study of Florida Child Welfare Service Reform through the Lens of Principal-Agent Theory

Lamothe

2011

International Journal of Public Administration

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While principal-agency theory has greatly facilitated our understanding of governance and management in the hollow state, close examinations of how system designs affect agency problems has been rare. The purpose of this study is to explicitly investigate the effects of different contract configurations on agent shirking, which is a common problem in third-party service delivery arrangements. Florida's recent statewide privatization and reconfiguration of its child welfare service delivery system are analyzed for this purpose. Data were collected through intensive document reviews and interviews with the public managers and the contract agents who were involved in the reform. Major structural components of the redesigned system (such as overall contract configuration, procurement policies, oversight mechanism, payment methods, and vendor governance structures) are examined and compared with those of the old system. The results of the analysis suggest that the Florida reform installed several structural devices intending to curb agent shirking that plagued the old system. The most significant changes involve a transition of the contracting scheme from a fragmented quasimarket based on dyadic contracting to an integrated service network based on a managed care model, a shift of the focus of the contract oversight from compliance and process to service outcomes, and a transfer of programmatic and financial risks and uncertainties from the government to vendors. Further, the findings of the study reveal some unintended consequences of the reform. For example, the reconfigured system that empowers communities also promotes local parochialism that hinders the government's statewide policymaking ability. The reform that consolidates contracts into the hands of a few large vendors under a standardized contract management system unites the vendors around their common interests to confront their government principal.

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Beyond the Search for Competition in Social Service Contracting

Cited by 40 publications

References 25 publications

How Competitive Is “Competitive” Procurement in the Social Services?

How Competitive Is “Competitive” Procurement in the Social Services?

Public Procurement: Public Administration and Public Service Perspectives

Redesigning the Hollow State: A Study of Florida Child Welfare Service Reform through the Lens of Principal-Agent Theory

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