Maladministration

Near-synonyms: mismanagement, misgovernance

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.

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, […]

[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; […]

[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.

Annual auditing was a farce, and since the Chambre de Justice had fallen into disuse after 1716, judicial checks on financial maladministration were non-existent.

[…] 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.