What (who) is quango - definition

ORGANIZATION TO WHICH A GOVERNMENT HAS DEVOLVED POWER

QUANGO; Quasi-autonomous non-government organisation; QuANGO; Qango; Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation; Arm's Length body; Quasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation; Quangoes; Quangos; QANGO; Arm's Length Body; Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization; Quangocrat; Quangocracy; Arm's length body; Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations; Quasi-autonomous non-government organisations; Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations; Quasi-autonomous non-government organization; Quasi-autonomous non-government organizations

quango

Pronounced kwango. Used to describe something good. Current use in British army.
That car is quango.

quango

['kwa?g??]

¦ noun (plural quangos) Brit., chiefly derogatory a semi-public administrative body outside the civil service but receiving financial support from the government, which makes senior appointments to it.

Origin

1970s (orig. US): acronym from quasi (or quasi-autonomous) non-government(al) organization.

quango

(quangos)

In Britain, a quango is a committee which is appointed by the government but works independently. A quango has responsibility for a particular area of activity, for example the giving of government grants to arts organizations.

N-COUNT

Wikipedia

Quango

A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi autonomous NGO", where NGO is the acronym for a non-government organization.

In its pejorative use, it has been widely applied to public bodies of various kinds, and a variety of backronyms have been used to make the term consistent with this expanded use. The most popular have been "Quasi-autonomous national government organization" and "Quasi-autonomous non-government organization", often with the acronym modified to "qango" or "QANGO".

As its original name suggests, a quango is a hybrid form of organization, with elements of both NGOs and public sector bodies. The term is most often applied in the United Kingdom and, to a lesser degree, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and other English-speaking countries.

In the UK, the term quango covers different "arm's-length" government bodies, including "non-departmental public bodies" (NDPBs), non-ministerial government departments, and executive agencies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quango

Pronunciation examples for quango

1. George Osborne wants to set up a quango to deal with this.

The Storm _ Vince Cable _ Talks at Google

2. are, and then, you're going to vote on it. But hiding behind new laws and quangos does

The Storm _ Vince Cable _ Talks at Google

Examples of use of quango

1. Another load of nonsense from this Government quango.

2. This march of the quango state profoundly undemocratic.

3. Now this secretive quango will have to open up its decision–making process.

4. The bid was backed by the city council and regeneration quango New East Manchester.

5. But there is an extra case to be made for the quango state.