The Governance of Government Owned Corporations

The last two decades have seen a move to corporatise many aspects of governmental activity. The central objective of corporatisation has been to produce greater efficiency and more accountability in the public sector. The article addresses the question of whether the private sector company model, and its associated governance structures, is a theoretically viable governance structure for government owned corporations and thus whether this model is able to deliver the efficiency and accountability benefits its adoption assumed. The article concludes that continuing public ownership and the need for public accountability means that governance strategies developed for private sector companies are unlikely to be suitable for public sector entities