Wednesday January 29, 2025
Vale Professor Emeritus Richard Mulgan
The Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) ACT is commemorating the unexpected passing of Emeritus Professor Richard Mulgan, one of Australia’s leading public administration scholars.
Richard was widely known for his extensive contributions to integrity, accountability and ethics research in public administration around the world.
His most cited publication, Holding Power to Account: Accountability in Modern Democracies, reflected on the difference between accountability in the public and private sectors, and how public management reforms affect accountability across the US, the UK and other Westminster countries.
Staying true to his passion for integrity research, Richard most recently published ‘Ten lessons from Robodebt’, which analysed public service culture and made 10 recommendations for public servants to implement from Robodebt.
At IPAA, we deeply appreciated Richard’s expertise and research excellence, which were recognised by two Sam Richardson Awards for the most influential paper in the Australian Journal of Public Administration in 2022 and 2001.
We will remember him as a thoughtful and humble person, and an outstanding intellectual and teacher, who made an exceptional contribution to improving public administration practice around the world.