Accountability And Empowerment:A Case Study Of The Dual Role Practice Of Third-party Evaluation Agencies In A Government

In government purchased services,the introduction of a third-party evaluation mechanism to establish a third-party evaluation mechanism for government purchased services in line with China’s national conditions is an effective measure to realize the transformation of government functions.In recent years,with the flourishing development of government purchase evaluation services in China,third-party evaluation agencies have also developed,however,the current research on third-party evaluation agencies is still characterized by practice coming first but research lagging behind,and there is still much room for expanding the practical research on the role of third-party evaluation agencies.Therefore,this study aims to examine in depth the role practice of third-party evaluation agencies in government purchased evaluation service projects through a case study.Taking Process Role Theory as the research perspective,this study examines a government purchase evaluation service project in a city of Southern Jiangsu by New Vision Evaluation Center from 2016 to 2022 as a case study,focusing on the role practice process of third-party evaluation agencies in government purchase evaluation services,the practice characteristics,and how their dual roles are reconciled in evaluation practice,etc.This study adopts a qualitative research approach,and uses participant observation and semi-structured interviews to collect data.The results of the study indicate that third-party evaluation organizations have a dual role of accountability and empowerment in government purchased evaluation service projects.On the one hand,third-party evaluation agencies consider themselves to be the regulators or controllers of the service quality of social service projects,which is in line with the main role expectations of government departments and social service agencies.In the evaluation practice,the third-party evaluator acts as an "accountability agent" for government departments,and its main role practice is accountability-oriented.On the other hand,thirdparty evaluators also consider themselves to be supervisors of social service organizations and their program development,and this is in line with the secondary role expectations of government departments and social service organizations.In their evaluation practice,thirdparty evaluation organizations empower social service organizations in terms of service philosophy and expertise,and their secondary role practice is empowerment-oriented.The dual role practices of third-party assessment organizations are reconciled through dynamic or congenial strategies.Based on the results of the study,this study also explores several ways for enhancing third-party evaluation.