A Legal Discussion on some Practical issues for the Contraction-out of Local Governments

Abstract

The Contraction out of local government has been administered without any definite standards, so some practical issues are exposed, where the only legal basis for it is a provision of the Local Autonomy Act. However, such practical issues consequently become the issue of whether it needs the consent of the local council. Even the contracting out of local governments based on laws and the contracting out between local governments, if necessary, should be subject to local laws and regulations and public agencies should be restrictively interpreted, ultimately to clarify the objects of the consent of local councils. How to administer the consent of local councils appears as an issue in regard to the councils’ authority to consent. Although the contracting out of local governments is intended to use private agencies’ expertise and ensure the public openness to citizens, by allowing them to participate in public sectors, its nature as public affairs does not change. It is thus necessary to consider the rule of local councils’ consent in terms of the contraction out of local governments, as a measure for controlling the general monopolization of heads of local governments and securing the efficiency and fairness of it, for executive agencies and local councils to pursue public benefit, based on the principle of check and balance.