maladministration

plural maladministrations · alternative maleadministration · alternative male-administration

1. uncountablegovernmentFaulty, improper, or inefficient administration or management, especially by a government body; (countable) an instance of this.First known use 17th c.

   Near-synonyms: mismanagement, misgovernance

   5 more examples

   To combat maladministration and improve government efficiency, the ombudsman was established to function as an independent watchdog.

   At noon home to dinner, and much good discourse with him [Roger Pepys], he being mighty sensible of our misery and mal-administration. Talking of these straits we are in, he tells me that my Lord Arlington [Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington] did the last week take up £12,000 in gold, which is very likely, for all was taken up that could be.

   1667 June 25 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “June 16th, 1667”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VI, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895, →OCLC, pages 372–373

   Mean vvhile, he reſumed his taſk; and having finiſhed a moſt ſevere remonſtrance against Sir Steady, not only vvith regard to his private ingratitude, but also to his male-adminiſtration of public affairs, he ſent it to the author of a vveekly paper, […]

   1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “He Writes against the Minister, by whose Instigation He is Arrested, and Moves Himself by Habeas Corpus into the Fleet”, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume IV, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 149

   [A] vvrit of error lies from hence [the court of justice-seat] to the court of king's bench, to rectify and redreſs any mal-adminiſtrations of juſtice; […]

   1768, William Blackstone, “Of Courts of a Special Jurisdiction”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 73

   [W]hat I wanted to get at was this fact, that the liquor traffic was, through the maladministration of the Government, opened up in a community that expected to be kept free from it. The safeguards of a prohibitory law were broken down, and the resulting debauchery took place.

   1893 November 3, Francis S[tephens] Spence, witness, Royal Commission on the Liquor Traffic: Minutes of Evidence […] (No. 21–1894), volume IV, part II, […] S. E. Dawson, […], published 1895, →OCLC, page 1035

   Synonyms: misadministration, mismanagement, misgovernance

2. countableobsoleteChristianityAn act of incorrectly administering a religious rite; also, a religious group that permits such a practice.

   […] I vvould have the Sacraments on their vvheels, and yet ſo that their mal-adminiſtration bring not epidemick judgements upon us, as the receiving unvvorthily did on the Church of Corinth.

   1656, Richard Vines, “What Must be Done where Discipline Cannot be Executed for Want of Administrators”, in A Treatise of the Right Institution, Administration, and Receiving of the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper. […], London: […] A. M. for Thomas Underhill […], published 1657, →OCLC, page 259