Outsourcing Power Does Not Outsource Responsibility

A government hires a private security company. A university buys a platform that manages assessment and records. A church contracts counselling, finance, transport or safeguarding services. A board appoints consultants to design a strategy. In each case, expertise and delivery may legitimately sit outside the institution.

The governance failure begins when leaders describe the consequence as somebody else's work. The provider controls the personnel, system or method; the institution receives reports; and the people affected are told that the contract defines what can be known or corrected. Authority becomes difficult to locate precisely where harm, error or conflict requires an answer.

Outsourcing power does not outsource responsibility. A contract can transfer defined performance. It cannot erase the public, academic, pastoral, fiduciary or human-rights duties attached to the institution's purpose and lawful authority. Responsible delegation therefore preserves an unbroken line from mandate to action, evidence, oversight, remedy and learning.

Reuters reported at 22:56 East Africa Time on 9 October that forces linked to Vectus Global, a company associated with Blackwater founder Erik Prince, suffered dead and wounded in a mid-September ambush in South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reuters said at least seven Congolese personnel, a former New Zealand special-forces member and former United States soldier and mixed-martial-arts fighter Tim Kennedy were among those killed or injured. Reuters, 9 October

The report says the…