1. The New Zealand administrative reform can be summarised as follows: ‘Virtually every element of reform has been designed to establish or strengthen contract-like relationships between the government and ministers as purchasers of goods and services and departments and other entities as suppliers. Hundreds of contracts are formally negotiated each year; the typical contract specifies the resources that one side will provide and the performance the other side will produce. Ministers are always on the resource-providing side of the relationship; chief executives can be on either side, depending on the role they are playing. A chief executive provides resources in negotiating employment contracts with managers but promises results in negotiating purchase agreements with ministers and performance agreements with the State Services Commissioner’ (Schick, 1998 Schick, A. 1998. Why most developing countries should not try New Zealand's reforms. World Bank Research Observer, 13(1): 123–131. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]: 124).