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Quango

A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi NGO", where NGO is the acronym for a non-government organization.[1]

For other uses, see Quango (disambiguation).

As its original name suggests, a quango is a hybrid form of organization, with elements of both NGOs and public sector bodies. The term is most often applied in the United Kingdom and, to a lesser degree, other countries in the core and middle Anglosphere.


In the UK, the term quango covers different "arm's-length" government bodies, including "non-departmental public bodies" (NDPBs), non-ministerial government departments, and executive agencies.[2]


In its pejorative use, it has been widely applied to public bodies of various kinds, and a variety of backronyms have been used to make the term consistent with this expanded use. The most popular has been "Quasi-autonomous national government organization", often with the acronym modified to "qango" or "QANGO".

(Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation) providing telecommunications. Notable for the last remaining government owned incumbent telephone provider in Canada.

SaskTel

(Saskatchewan Power Corporation) providing electricity.

SaskPower

(SaskEnergy Incorporated) providing natural gas.

SaskEnergy

(Saskatchewan Water Corporation) providing potable water and sewage services to certain communities.

SaskWater

Criticisms[edit]

The Times has accused quangos of bureaucratic waste and excess.[23] In 2005, Dan Lewis, author of The Essential Guide to Quangos, claimed that the UK had 529 quangos, many of which were useless and duplicated the work of others.


The term has spawned the derivative quangocrat; the Taxpayers' Alliance faulted a majority of "quangocrats" for not making declarations of political activity.[24]

– nicknamed the "Quango Queen"

Penelope Lyttelton, Viscountess Cobham

Departments of the United Kingdom Government

(GONGO)

Government-organized non-governmental organization

Government agency

Independent agency

New York state public-benefit corporations

Off-budget enterprise

Scottish public bodies

Welsh Government sponsored body

Non-departmental public body

Read Before Burning: Arm's length government for a new administration – report by the Institute for Government about the quango landscape

Civil Service – Government Departments and Accredited NDPBs

Economic Research Council – online database of all UK quangos 1998–2006

Richard Allen and Dimitar Radev, "Managing and Controlling Extrabudgetary Funds", OECD Journal of Budgeting, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2006

Carsten Greve, Matthew Flinders, Sandra Van Thiel (1999), Quangos—What's in a Name? Defining Quangos from a Comparative Perspective, Governance 12 (2), 129–146 :10.1111/0952-1895.951999095

doi

UK government site about the process of making public appointments

Quango name 'source of ridicule', files from 1980 show