Contestability

One way municipal/local governments can provide better services is by making them "contestable". This means that the government or the private sector (or both) can bid on service contracts. There are five steps for making services contestable:

* Identifying whether the service needs to be provided at all, and if it does, whether it needs to be provided by government.
* Accurately specifying all the elements of providing the service as well as their true costs.
* Receiving properly priced offers from each bidder, inclusive of all true costs.
* Selecting the option that provides the best value.
* Monitoring the contract after the best bidder has been chosen to ensure that the service is satisfactorily provided.