IMPACT OF PRIVATISATION ON PUBLIC WASTE COLLECTION

Abstract

Public choice theory suggests that competition in the market for service production will lead to higher efficiency and better performance in the market. A lot of international studies have looked into the impacts of privatisation on public services, particularly on refuse collection services, and they have derived different conclusions on it. With the recent Government's effort to allow greater competition in the municipal waste market, there is thus an opportunity to put public choice theory to test using the Singapore context. The main objective of this study is therefore to test the hypothesis that privatisation will lead to higher efficiency through greater competition. The efficiency of privatising public waste collection will be evaluated in terms of cost savings and quality of service. It was found that in the two sectors which have been tendered out, there is evidence of substantial cost savings in both sectors. And while there is no difference in the quality of refuse collection service in the Bedok sector, there seems to have an improvement in the Tampines-Pasir Ris sector. The findings thus indicate that higher efficiency has resulted in both sectors since the introduction of competition into the waste management market.