Hoe plakken we verknipte dienstverlening?

Uit de berichtgeving in de media rijst het beeld op dat er iets grondig mis is met de publieke dienstverlening in Nederland. Ik noem: * De hoogte van salarissen van bestuurders in verzelfstandigde overheidsdiensten, zoals bij het COA, ziekenhuizen, woningbouwcorporaties; * Mislukte vastgoedavonturen van zorginstellingen zoals thuiszorgorganisatie Philadelphia waardoor op de zorg voor cliënten beknibbeld moest worden * De stopwatchcultuur in de zorg, waardoor verpleegkundigen in ziekenhuizen, verzorgingshuizen en thuiszorg geen tijd meer hebben voor contact met hun patiënten of cliënten. * De aanbestedingen in de thuiszorg, die ertoe leidden dat thuiszorgorganisaties zoals thuiszorggigant Meavita failliet gingen, dat er niet meer met vaste contracten gewerkt kan worden en dat in sommige gevallen zoals bij Thuiszorg Rotterdam resulteert dat huishoudelijke diensten afgestoten worden naar schoonmaakbedrijven. * Het onder druk van rendementseisen lichtvaardig uitreiken van diploma’s aan langstuderenden door de hogeschool InHolland.Deze tekst is gebaseerd op Koppenjan's inaugurale rede, die hij op 3 februari 2012 in Rotterdam uitspra

Public–Private Partnerships for green infrastructures: Tensions and challenges

Recently, the OECD has suggested to seek private investment to realize and accelerate the realization of low-carbon, climate-resilient (LCCR) infrastructure. One of the options explored was the use of Design, Build, Finance, Maintain and/or Operate (DBFMO) contracts. Since experiences with these forms of Public Private Partnerships are diverse, making the realization of government’s sustainability policies dependent upon these practices is not without risks. In this paper tensions between DBFMO contracts and LCCR-objectives are explored. Engaging in PPPs requires these tensions to be addressed. Governments must ensure that success conditions are in place, like the presence of a sound LCCR policy, potentials for return on investments, and the skills to act as professional client and competent contract and stakeholder manager. Last not least it requires the greening of the predominantly economic oriented regulation framework of PPPs

Het Verknipte Bestuur. Over efficiency, samenhang en toewijding bij publieke dienstverlening

Deze rede is in verkorte vorm uitgesproken op 3 februari 2012 bij gelegenheid van de openbare aanvaarding van de leerstoel ‘Bestuurskunde, in het bijzonder beleidsprocessen in de publieke sector, bij de opleiding Bestuurskunde van de Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen van de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

Omgevingsmanagement: een meervoudige opgave

Complexe projecten worden gerealiseerd in een complexe omgeving. Dat maakt projecten nog complexer. Het negeren van die omgeving is geen optie. Want de omgeving wordt onder andere complex genoemd omdat deze zich tegen het project aan bemoeit. Een turbulente omgeving kan resulteren in late scopewijzigingen, hoogoplopende kosten, voortgaande discussies over nut en noodzaak zelfs tijdens de uitvoering, vertragingen en uitstel, soms zelfs afstel. Precies dat wat projectmanagement probeert te vermijden. De verwachtingen van omgevingsmanagement zijn dan ook hoog. Door de omgeving bij het project te betrekken en met de belangen van stakeholders rekening te houden wordt steun en vertrouwen opgebouwd, waardoor de projectrealisatie makkelijker verloopt. De inbreng van informatie en ideeën verrijkt de inhoud van het project: het resultaat kan zo een gemeenschappelijk project zijn, dat een breed scala aan maatschappelijke en publieke waarden realiseert

Local renewable energy cooperatives: revolution in disguise?

Background: The Eurostat statistics on the 28 EU member states’ performance in relation to renewable energy show that the Netherlands comes 25th in the EU-28. Yet, 500 initiatives were started by citizens and social groups over the last years to produce and consume renewable energy. The central question is whether these local renewable energy initiatives can be seen as a radical innovation or whether—and to what extent—they can contribute to a transition towards renewable energy production or consumption in the Netherlands. Methods: Content analysis and case studies were the methods used in this study. Results: The establishment of local energy cooperatives is a niche innovation in an early stage of development, and their impact on the energy production system is small, whereas local wind energy cooperatives are qualified as in a mature stage of development. Two of the four case studies of front-running local energy cooperatives demonstrate an energy transition or radical innovation in their home or facility area. One of the energy cooperatives developed an innovative concept that has potential for the production of wind energy (Deltawind). The other three energy cooperatives use a concept (sell green energy and produce renewable electricity) that is probably not suitable for large groups of clients, and the possibilities of up-scaling this formula are limited. The success of one of these three energy cooperatives (Texel Energie) is driven by the characteristics of the facility area and the social and other conditions on the island of Texel. Conclusions: Because of the small scale of these initiatives, the performance of the Netherlands in renewable energy statistics and the rise of local energy cooperatives are not contradictory. Local wind energy cooperatives have proven to be successful, and under specific circumstances, other local energy cooperatives can be successful as well. The potential of the concept to contribute to energy transition or radical innovation is better for the local wind cooperative than for the other energy cooperatives. However, the uniqueness of each of the case studies prevents an easy reproduction of successes. The idea of up-scaling successful concepts is too simplistic, but acquiring knowledge about the mechanisms underlying energy transitions or radical innovations seems to be valuable

How to Sell a Railway: Lessons on the privatization of Three Dutch Railway Projects

In this contribution, we provide a comparative analysis of the Dutch government’s attempts to realize private investments in three national railway mega-projects: the Betuwe Route, a dedicated freight railway line connecting the Rotterdam harbour to the German rail network, the High Speed Line (HSL South) between the Belgian border and Amsterdam and the Zuiderzee Line between Amsterdam and Groningen, for which a private consortium led by Siemens suggests the use of Maglev technology. The privatization of the first two railway lines was attempted for during the nineties and beginning of this decade. In June 2007 operation of the Betuwe Route began. To date, the government has not succeeded in involving private parties in the Betuwe Route. Although the privatization of the HSL South has partly been realized by engaging into a complex mix of contract-arrangements, it has proven difficult to keep under control. Recently operation has been postponed until October 2008. During the project study of the third railway project, which started in 2000, government again tried to realize privatization while avoiding the mistakes of the earlier two projects. In 2005 government decided not to move forward with the tender procedure and consider alternatives. Building on theory and earlier experiences with privatization and public private partnerships we compare the three cases with respect to motives for privatization, strategies and results. We seek explanations for the way privatization evolved within each project and generic lessons that can be drawn from the cases

Institutional Design

Within public administration and policy sciences the concept of policy networks nowadays is well accepted. Not much attention has been paid so far to strategies aimed at institutional design. Therefore, in this article, we develop a conceptual framework to study institutional design more thoroughly. We do this by specifying the nature and variety of institutional rules that guide the behaviour of actors within networks. Given this categorization of rules, we identify possible strategies to change network rules. Next, we focus on the strategic context of attempts to influence the nature of instit