Politicians have failed to realise that making a profit has become more important than service when introducing market forces into public sector activities, according to the government’s highest advisory body, the Council of State.

‘The public interest is becoming a marginal,’ the paper quotes Herman Tjeenk, deputy chairman of the Council of State as saying at the publication of the council’s 2008 annual report.
Politicians, MPs and officials have been unable to act as sufficient counterweight to the dynamics of the market, Tjeenk said.
‘When market forces do not appear to deliver what was forecast, we have to look again at which tasks are so essential to the public that they should not be left to the private sector alone,’ the paper quoted Tjeenk as saying.
Last year the council was asked for its recommendations on 593 occasions. The organisation’s legal department dealt with 9,700 appeals.