Very predictable.
Having worked in the public sector, there's for sure plenty of ways that things could be optimised. However, in my experience this usually involved an external audit which resulted in major changes which in turn made things worse - because they didnt really understand how things worked, and sought only for an immediate result in the couple metrics they were measuring, without proper consideration of all the other impacts. It's bad enough paying a small fortune to consultants, but even more batshit insane to have a quick fire review and widescale terminations by people with little to no knowledge of how things operate.
Genuine improvement in public services requires MONEY to improve upon ancient systems that aren't fit for purpose. Perhaps some (careful) cutting of red tape/restrictions. Some strucutral and policy changes. Recruitment and training needs tweaking. Staff retention and progression needs improving. Pay people shit, and don't provide them routes of progression which BUILD upon their existing experience, and they don't stay. For example, a big problem is that many "promotions" in the public sector can't stipulate that you need specific knowledge/experience in that line of work. So people jump from one department to another because its the only/best option for promotion, which means the department loses a ton of experience, the employee now has wasted knowledge they no longer need, the new department has to train the new employee, and then people beneath them in the hierarchy have a superior who isn't familiar with the line of work and is going to make mistakes.
Edit (UK specific I'm talking about)
