"We have a 15-workday training program for instructors. Four trainees from four rehabilitation centers in the district enjoyed free training afforded by the district government," Sun said.

A bumpy road

Some experts suggested that the government tighten regulations to prevent misconduct when services are purchased from the private sector.

Yu An, a professor at the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University, warned that the quality and cost of services provided by the private sector are potentially unstable and that the efficiency of social organizations can be both better and worse than that of the government.

Yu added that the United Kingdom contracted private companies to run the state-owned railway system in the 1990s, resulting in higher accident rates.

Another example Yu gave is Shijiazhuang in north China's Hebei Province. The city outsourced services for senior residents who live alone to a private company in 2008. It issued coupons for discounts to eligible senior residents so that they could pay for nursing, cleaning and other services they received. Unfortunately, the company contracted charged a large amount and its services were allegedly poor, triggering widespread criticism.

Yu suggested that, before outsourcing public services, the government evaluate its own performance and that of the private sector to determine whether a deal will both improve efficiency and lower cost. If social organizations cannot provide higher-quality service in a certain area, the government should retain its role.

Currently, the government lacks experience in purchasing services from the private sector, with some problems still existing in this area, said Lu Fang, a professor at the School of Political Science and Administration at the China University of Political Science and Law.

"Before purchasing services, some government departments have not done enough analysis and research of the need for public services and failed to properly appraise the qualifications of private sector providers," Lu said.

In addition, she said that many local governments have not set up standardized, transparent bidding systems for selecting private sector providers, and as a result, public services are often contracted to social organizations backed by the government.

Public services are intangible so their quality is difficult to evaluate, making it necessary to set up qualification thresholds for service providers and strengthen public oversight during the provider selection process, said Zhan Zhongle, a professor at the Law School of Peking University.

Wang Ming suggested three criteria for selecting service providers—how public their services are, their transparency and quality of internal management. He said that appraisal of social organizations should eventually be carried out by independent agencies rather than the government, though this is not yet practical in China due to a lack of competent independent agencies.

Li emphasized that the service purchase process must be transparent and open so that service providers can engage in fair competition.

In addition to making preparations before purchasing services, the government should improve supervision during project implementation and conduct post-project performance evaluations and audits, Lu said.

The newly released State Council's guidelines for government purchasing of public services requires governments at various levels to be open, fair and just when purchasing public services, monitor the project implementation process and conduct project performance evaluations.

Establishing a sound legal framework to regulate government purchase of public services is also a pressing issue, according to experts.

"Currently, there are laws that regulate government purchase of goods and services. However, the services referred to in the law cover only those needed by government departments, so the existing regulations cannot serve as a foundation for outsourcing public services," Lu said.

Email us at: wanghairong@bjreview.com