Quality

• Reduced quality of services • Degrading of assets through poor maintenance Across the country, the privatization track record is full of service failures and deteriorating infrastructure. Private investors or contractors naturally have an overriding interest in making profit, which creates incentives to let quality slip and assets degrade. When governments turn over control of public assets like water systems, roads and parks to private interests, corner-cutting on maintenance, repairs and quality control is common. In many water privatization cases, the quality of the water declines after a private company takes control of the system, sometimes to the point of greatly compromising the health of residents. When government jobs are contracted out -- from school bus drivers to welfare eligibility caseworkers -- service quality often declines because employees of private contractors typically lack the training or experience needed to maintain the same level of service. Some contracts contain incentives for contractors to value quantity over quality. Since a good quality service usually takes more time than inferior service, contract structures in which a company is paid a variable amount per client can be detrimental. They encourage the company to increase the number of clients they serve, regardless of the quality of service provided to each client. In some social services contracts, for instance, companies encourage caseworkers to process as many clients as possible, instead of placing an emphasis on quality, which can take longer.