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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia\'s quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (September 2007) |
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Quasi-governmental. (Discuss) |
For the marketing and design company, see QUANGO Inc.
For the record label, see Quango Music Group.
The acronyms Qango and Quango, variously spelt out as QUAsi Non-Governmental Organisation, QUasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation, and QUasi-Autonomous National Government Organisation, have been used, notably in the United Kingdom, but also in Australia, Ireland and other countries, to describe a range of organisations to which governments have devolved power. Confusion over the meaning of the acronym has been reflected in confusion over the use of the term, and may have contributed to its decline in use. The term Quango carries with it an implication of poor management and lack of accountability.
The term originated as a humorous shortening of Quasi-NGO, that is, an ostensibly non-governmental organisation which performs governmental functions, often with government funding or other support. Wettenhall, R 1981 \'The quango phenomenon\', Current Affairs Bulletin 57(10):14-22.] There are many such organisations. In Australia and other countries, the Red Cross provides blood bank services, with government support and backing of various kinds. Examples in the United Kingdom include bodies engaged in self-regulation of various sectors, such as the Press Council and the Law Society. An essential feature of a Quango, in the original definition, was that it should not be formally part of the public sector.
However, the appeal of the term was such that it was extended to a wide range of governmental organisations, such as executive agencies (from 1988) providing health, education and other services. Particularly in the United Kingdom, this extension took place in a polemical context, being associated with claims that the proliferation of such authorities was undesirable and should be reversed [1]. In the course of this process, attempts were made to derive the acronym from longer terms which did not carry the presumption that the organisation in question was non-governmental. The most popular was Quasi-Autonomous National Government Organisation, which, however, carries with it the false presumption that state and local governments cannot make use of Quangos. Similarly, the insertion of the word "autonomous" does not work in a descriptive sense: the main complaint about these organisations is that they have too much autonomy, rather than, as with the original term, that their apparent autonomy conceals a close relationship with government.
Since most of such bodies are in fact part of the government in terms of funding, appointment and function, the acronym does not work as a description - these are generally not non-governmental organisations with less autonomy than others. As a result, it has largely been abandoned in UK official usage. The less controversial term non-departmental public body (NDPB) is now used to describe many of the organisations with devolved governmental roles, in an attempt to avoid the pejorative associations of the term Quango.
The UK government\'s definition of a non-departmental public body or quango in 1997 was:
The use of executive agencies with service delivery functions has developed alongside NDPBs in the UK. 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. The NHS also has bodies called Special Health Authorities which are technically neither NDPBs nor executive agencies, and the Department of Health collectively describes all three types as "arm\'s length bodies". Network Rail, the organisation responsible for the UK\'s railway infrastructure is a classically oblique Quango.
The Republic of Ireland has more than 800 quangos — 482 at national level and 350 at local level. According to a survey carried out by the think-tank Tasc in 2006. Focus: What\'s wrong with quangos? — The Sunday Times newspaper article, 29 October 2006 they have a combined annual budget of €13 billion and 5,784 quango members.
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