3.16 Authorities need to monitor how contractors measure and report performance. But, as contractors usually have the primary responsibility for performance measurement, they may resent undue interference in this process by the authority. Authorities should, therefore, adopt an appropriate approach to monitoring being neither too 'hands on' nor too 'hands off'. Figure 29 shows that 76 per cent of contractors consider that authorities have adopted an appropriate approach to monitoring.
3.17 One contractor considered that the authority's approach was too 'hands on' in trying to second guess many of the contractor's internal management decisions but too 'hands off' in not working jointly with it on business implementation and wider issues concerning managing joint risks effectively. Another contractor told us that so many of the authority's staff became involved in the decision making process that it felt it was 'like wrestling with a jelly fish'.