Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

public body. This default question should be answered with contestable rigour andtransparency by a business case addressing threshold criteria for the establishment ofbodies outside departments and weighing relevant public interest considerations.Distinctively, such business case is to be called a public interest case. 168That review also concluded that “allocating a government function to a non-departmentalstructure because of a presumption that the department would be too inefficient andineffective is no longer valid, if ever it was”. 169The Public Interest Map developed for the Queensland Government is founded on thefollowing principles:• Delegation or devolution of public power should be unambiguous,transparent, granted and exercised in the public interest, accountable, andsubject to review.• Similarly, expenditure of public funds should be clearly and transparentlyauthorised, accountable, and subject to scrutiny and probity.• Clarity and transparency supports good governance, which provides foraccountability, and leads to good performance outcomes.• Private sector models of corporate governance are not necessarily superior topublic sector governance models.• Particular functions or structures may not be necessary, or appropriate, on anindefinite basis.• Organisational forms, and governance, are an evolving and inexact science.• There should be functional necessity and regulatory integrity observingminimisation of administrative process, compliance costs and regulatoryimpact. 170The Public Interest Map is set out below 171 :168 Webbe & Weller. (2008) p.52.169 Webbe & Weller. (2008) p.11.170 Webbe & Weller. (2008) p.49.171 Webbe & Weller. (2008) p.51Governing the City State: 101