Title: Attributes of Well-Performing Water Utilities including two mapping tools for utility reforms
1Attributes of Well-Performing Water
Utilitiesincluding two mapping tools for utility
reforms
2Critical dimensions of a well run (public or
private) utility
3Customer Orientation
- What?
- Degree to which utilities report and listen to
their customers, work to better meet their needs - Customer orientation increases accountability of
the service provider to its customers
- How?
- Actively survey customers to learn their views
and preferences in order to make better decisions - Use customer information to steer decision making
- Have developed billings and collection systems
that best overcome specific constraints faced by
various customer groups - Inform customers about service changes and
interruptions - Have developed effective complaint resolution
mechanisms
Customer orientation pays! (happy customers pay
for services)
4Example SIMAPAG (Guanajuato, Mexico)
- Invested in knowing what their customer wanted
- Surveys about 200 customers per month on their
level of satisfaction with provided services - Uses customer information for management
decisions - Surveys feed into the Balanced Scorecard which is
used to support strategic decision-making - client perspective is the most important of a
number of perspectives by which performance is
measured in the Balanced Scorecard - Information is not yet methodologically used to
define corporate strategies and priorities but
scorecard focuses staffs priorities thus
increasing efficiency - Invested in mechanisms to improve services
- customer information through bill stuffers and
the media - expanded modes of billing and collection to
minimize waiting times at utility office - Established tracking system for complaints
- frequent customer management training for staff
- Results
- Between 1996 and 2001 SIMAPAGs income from
customers increased by 280 from approximately
141,000 to over 400,000. - Funds have been reinvested to improve water
supply services and helped to expand sewerage
services - Butin 2003 the city council lowered monthly
automatic tariff increase from 1.1 to 0.01 (lt
inflation)
5Critical dimensions of a well run (public or
private) utility
6Utilities with Internal Accountability Autonomy
have shifted from traditional hierarchical set
up to flatter decision-making structures
- Hard measures
- Business plans
- Systematic reporting between various levels
- Incentives (rewards and penalties) to achieve
well-defined performance targets - Standard processes, streamlined procedures
- Cost accounting techniques that link resources
to outputs - Outsourcing, market testing
- Benchmarking
- Soft measures
- Training to improve staff skills
- Strong corporate culture
- Moral and behavior norms that inspire staff and
management to excel - Clear vision and mission statements
- Shaped by top management
7Example Public Utilities Board (Singapore)
- Internal decentralization of responsibilities
- Multilayered organization
- Departmental heads are accountable for results -
expenditure approval ceilings for various
management levels - Outsources 25 of the operating budget
- Decentralization is supported by good info
- Performance indicators reported bi-monthly to the
Board and published annually - Standard business processes and systems
(ISO-9001) - Well-defined communication channels, including
scheduled regular meetings
- Corporate culture
- Clear merit-based promotion policies
- Grooming of staff and rotation policies
- Extensive training of staff (1.8 of operational
budget) - Visible mission statement
8External Autonomy and Accountability
Autonomy
Accountability
- Degree of independence from external interference
in utility managers decision-making
- Extent to which external stakeholders
(governments, financiers, customers) are able to
sanction the utility for results and use of
resources
9External autonomy creating room to deliver
10Effective autonomy is often lower than paper
autonomy
11External accountability
- A utility functions in a web of accountabilities
to a variety of external actors with different
functions
- Actors
- Central governments
- Local governments
- Customers
- Financing institutions
- Regulators
- Functions
- policy making
- Ownership (utility and asset)
- Regulation
- Demand for services
- Financing
12Example Johannesburg, South-Africa
Policy making Ownership Regulation Demand for services Financing
customers
Local government
Central government
Banks
Several external actors fulfill different
functions
13Further information
- Available at
- http//siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWSS/Resource
s/Workingnote9.pdf
14- Tool 1
- Mapping internal vs external reforms
15 Sustainable utility reform and reform of the
environment have to go hand-in-hand
Our goal
good
Typical reform path
environment
Possible combinations environment status/utility
provider status
poor
utility
poor
good
16How Uganda combined reform measures for the NWSC
utility and its environment
Reform of the environment
Utility reform
17and how reforms enhanced performance of NWSC
indicator 99/00 02/03
Water supply coverage 54 63
Unaccounted for water 42 39
Staff per 1000 connections 21 11
Collection period (months) 6.2 4.7
Tariffs (Ushs/m3) 881 1015
18- Tool 2
- Mapping external accountabilities
19Mapping the map ofaccountabilities of a utility
A traditional utility accountability skewed
towards local government
20Balancing and diversifying accountabilities
What could be done?
21- Introduction of group work
- Groups of 5-10 people each. Each group appoints a
chair and a rapporteur. - Each group gets assigned a case.
- Groups get 30 minutes to discuss.
- Each rapporteur has 5 minutes to report back to
the whole class (with flipchart) - Questions for each group
- Define the accountability framework of the
utility? - To which actors is the utility accountable?
- Which of the following functions exercises each
of these actors - What is the relative strength of each actor to
hold the utility accountable on a scale of 0-3? - Based on (a), (b) and (c), draw the
accountability map of the utility. - If you have time left
- how could one better balance the utilitys
accountabilities and create more autonomy for the
utility?