SHOULD THE PUBLIC SECTOR BE PRIVATIZED? 2
Should the Public Sector be Privatized?
The process of privatization involves the transfer of ownership of businesses, companies,
or service provision entities from the government and public to privately owned establishments.
Whereas privately owned organizations are profit-driven, those belonging to the public focus on
service delivery. This difference results in a disparity in efficiency with privatized companies
leading in efficacy. Contrarily, the public ones face unlimited challenges including corruption,
misuse of resources, and discrimination among many others. It is because of these challenges
that some scholars and institutions advocate for the privatization of the public sector (Sidhu &
Mudahar, 2012). However, this approach is not viable because of challenges related to
accountability, high costs, poor working conditions and various risks.
Because of focus on profit and proper management, many proponents of public-sector-
privatization believe that the government and the public will save money on costs from such a
move. As expressed by Mazzucato (2015), this can be achieved through streamlined services,
taxation, transfer of operational costs and funds raised in the privatization process. Additionally,
the improvement of professionalism and raised levels of efficiency, flexibility, and service
quality will ensure that the public benefits more when public-sector-privatization occurs.
However, Sidhu and Mudahar (2012) opine that these benefits only deceive the public
while covering up for the disadvantages that accompany privatization. The public sector provides
services for citizens with satisfaction as their main goal. Since privatizing them replaces this with
profit driven desires, costs may go up with companies ceasing to care whether the services are
perfect or not. As the public owns public companies, they have the right to hold managers
