The outcome or the process?

With much talk still about regarding the Ken Henry tax review and the proposals put forward to the government, this is a good time to review the overall process of this and many other government reviews.

Dr Henry was given the task of trying to simplify the tax laws and records show he has been paid handsomely to undertake this mammoth task.

Unlike private sector projects, this contract was not paid on an outcome basis. In the private sector it is common for contractors to have remuneration that is partly based on a suitable and workable outcome that will provide benefit to the organisation overall.

Should government contractors also be remunerated on the final outcome rather than just for the process?

Would this ensure that rather than a new tax regime that is adding new taxes to our already complicated existing system, the Australian government and therefore Australian public would have been presented with a paper that had taken into consideration the benefits to multiple parties and proposed changes that were workable with a high chance of uptake?

If remuneration were based on the number of suggestions that can be successfully implemented, there is a good chance that the government may not have felt the need to spend even more public money trying to convince everyone about the benefits to a new system that we have already paid someone to put forward as beneficial to the economy as a whole. Have we not just paid more money trying to achieve the same outcome that the review was supposed to deliver in the first place?

When remuneration is based on an outcome or performance basis you can often see even better results for your money. This is why so many sales professionals are paid part salary and part commissions, because employers have proven over time that part security and part incentive gets the best results. 

Perhaps its time that government reviews such as this are paid on a part commission basis to ensure we get a workable solution for the whole country without the need to spend even more public funds to make the review outcome workable.

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