Council Controlled Organisations: A Search for Accountability

Abstract

This paper outlines the background and history of council controlled organisations (CCOs) and the motivations that drive a local authority to use a CCO as a method of delivering a local activity. The paper focuses on the importance of the accountability structure for CCOs and in doing so address the fundamental tensions that exist in the internally competing principal objective of a CCO and the approach that Parliament and the judiciary have taken to accountability for CCO action; finding that what little evidence is available indicates accountability is not being delivered through these avenues. The paper also considers the legislative reforms that are proposed by the current Government under the Local Government 2002 Amendment Bill 2010 and the impact that these may have on local democracy and the use and establishment of CCOs.