ABSTRACT
Contemporary notions of good governance reflect the confluence of three policy narratives that describe how efficiency and effectiveness can be achieved in the public sector. First, the new public management' ethos characterised by the privatisation of certain public services and a strong emphasis on the use of targets and performance measures to drive performance and demonstrate transparency and accountability. Second, the concept of evidence-based policymaking that places a high priority on the collection and analysis of data as a basis for making policy decisions and makes explicit claims about avoiding ideological' issues. Third, the strong and pervasive role of formal process compliance-based approaches to risk management reflected in various standards and guidelines, and especially in ISO: 31000: 2009. Part of the impetus for privatising government services and state-run enterprises has been the perception, and in many cases the reality, that markets and businesses are able to be more efficient than the public sector.
