Reforming Public Services in India: Drawing Lessons from Success

1
Reforming Public Services in India Drawing
Lessons from Success

• Vikram K. Chand
• The World Bank
• May 9, 2006

2
Objectives of the Report

• The report documents 25 cases of success in
  improving public services across sectors/states.
• Cases were chosen on the basis of three criteria
  (a) Substantial institutional reforms introduced,
  (b) Documented success in improving outcomes
  through user surveys, objective indicators, and
  external recognition, and (c) initiatives in
  existence for at least two years.
• The main objective was to draw lessons on how to
  improve public service delivery across sectors.

3
Success in a Difficult Environment

• These reforms took hold, despite serious systemic
  obstacles to improving public delivery systems.
• These systemic obstacles include
• Overstaffing.
• Frequent transfers of public servants.
• Weak anti-corruption enforcement mechanisms.
• The need for electoral financing reform.
• Decentralization was only one element in a
  complex mix of instruments to improve delivery

4
The Enabling Environment
5
The Role of Political Leadership

• Vision Counts The political leadership
  influenced the kinds of reforms pursued in
  several states, like AP, MP, and Karnataka.
• Bipartisan consensus across party lines
  facilitated reforms to improve program delivery
  in Tamil Nadu.
• Electoral incentives motivated political leaders
  to support change in Tamil Nadu and Madhya
  Pradesh.

6
An Empowered Civil Service

• Stability of tenure crucial to empowering civil
  servants spearheading reform initiatives.
• Managerial autonomy for decision-making.
• Political support and signaling.
• Civil Servants when empowered by political
  leaders can be an effective instrument for
  innovation in service delivery.

7
Activating Civic Pressures for Change

• The Importance of Institutional Design
• Access to information laws work best when appeals
  processes are simple and pressure from below
  encourage their use.
• BATF institutionalized citizen participation in
  urban governance.
• Public Interest Litigation
• NGOs appeal to one part of the state (the
  judiciary) to hold another accountable (the
  executive).
• Creating Stakes for Participation
• The Political Economy of Hospital Autonomy in MP
• Using the Media for Effect
• Anti-corruption Institutions need to focus more
  on corruption in service delivery the media can
  be an important ally when prosecution is
  difficult.
• BATF and the Surat Municipal Corporation use the
  media as an ally.

8
INSTRUMENTS FOR REFORMING PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY
9
Promoting Competition Cases and Lessons

• Cases
• Telecom Reform in India, 1980-2004.
• Opening up Rural Marketing in MP.
• Lessons
• Conventional wisdom borne out Competition
  benefited consumers in telecom and farmers in MP.
  
• Rent-seeking by vested interests curbed.
• Strong action at highest-levels needed to push
  reform
• PMO push reform in the Telecom case.
• MP government amend Mandi laws to allow for
  greater private participation.

10
Simplifying Transactions Cases

• Report examined several cases using e-governance
  to simplify transactions.
• One-stop-shops E-Sewa and Friends
• Government Certificates Bhoomi
• Rural Card in Andhra Pradesh
• Computerizing Inter-state Check-posts in Gujarat.

11
Simplifying Transactions Lessons

• High-level political support key to overcoming
  resistance.
• Stability of tenure for administrative champions
  necessary.
• Importance of Public-Private Partnerships in
  E-Governance
• Low levels of citizen awareness in rural areas an
  obstacle to change.
• No jobs lost in any of these initiatives Win-Win
  Reforms.

12
Restructuring Agency Processes Cases

• State-Wide Agencies
• Maharashtras Registration Department
• The Karnataka State and Road Transport
  Corporation.
• City-Wide Agencies
• Transforming City Agencies in Bangalore
• Reforms in the Surat Municipal Corporation
• Making the Hyderabad Water Supply and Sewerage
  Board more responsive.

13
Restructuring Agency Processes Key Lessons

• Business process re-engineering needs to
  accompany computerization.
• Centralized monitoring systems can empower senior
  management in relation to front-line staff and
  junior management.
• Inter-agency coordination needed to break down
  silos.
• Restoring Performance Incentives in Agencies.
• More Effective Linkages with Civil Society
  Needed.

14
Decentralization Cases and Lessons

• Cases
• Surat After the Plague, 1994-2005.
• Decentralizing Teacher Management in MP.
• Lessons
• Decentralization in Surat freed the municipal
  commissioner to focus on policy issues and
  empowered zonal commissioners, on the ground, to
  deal with a fast-changing situation.
• Decentralizing teacher control to PRIs in MP
  lowered teacher absenteeism and reinforced
  accountability.
• Use of para-teachers made it possible to extend a
  decentralized model of teacher management in MP
  that boosted school enrollment in a
  fiscally-constrained setting.

15
Strengthening Provider Autonomy

• Case Rogi Kalyan Samitis in MP.
• Hospitals set up as RKS societies with autonomy
  to charge user fees and deploy them for purchase
  of equipment and maintenance.
• RKS societies representative of local society.
• Results
• Productivity of salary expenditures improved
• Doctor enthusiasm increased with better equipment
• Patient satisfaction ratings increased
  significantly.

16
Building Political Support for Program Delivery

• Comparing HD Outcomes in Tamil Nadu and
  Karnataka.
• Both States possess similar human development
  outcomes in 1981 By 2001, Tamil Nadu had jumped
  to third place while Karnataka remained in
  seventh place, despite similar rates of economic
  growth.
• Gap is now narrowing, but the question remains
  why TN was a superior performer in the 1980s and
  1990s on the whole.
• Key difference is the role of the Tamil Nadu
  government in fashioning a set of public policies
  and interventions to boost human development
  beyond what might have been expected by growth
  alone.

17
Welfarism and Politics in Tamil Nadu

• DMK and AIDMK share similar ideology rooted in
  the thought of Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy.
• Food crisis in the late 1960s led to the end of
  the Congress hegemony in Tamil Nadu Both DMK and
  AIDMK learned early on the importance of social
  programs for electoral success.
• Both parties engage in one-upmanship to extend
  social programs, including the adoption of a
  universal PDS system, a midday meal scheme in
  1982, effective family planning and nutritional
  interventions.

18
Political Support Spurred Tamil Nadus Civil
Service into Action

• Programs effectively implemented by Tamil Nadus
  civil service.
• Collector in TN a senior officer unlike many
  states TN also have no divisional commissioner
  system to dilute the collectors power and
  Secretaries possess tradition of autonomy in
  implementation in the state.
• Karnataka lacked an entrenched welfarist ideology
  to push social programs Mid-day meal scheme in
  the state, for example, not launched until 2002
  northern Karnataka remains behind the rest of the
  state.

19
Tamil Nadus PDS

• PDS in Tamil Nadu rated as best in the country in
  terms of usage, quality and access.
• Strong administrative monitoring involvement of
  consumer cooperatives and SHGs access to
  information extensive network of godowns
  electronic weighing, and political support for
  universal access to cheap rice key reasons.
• Low diversion rate given extremely low prices for
  rice indicate efficiency of system
• But annual cost high Rs. 1,500 crore annually.

20
Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms Cases

• Reducing Frequent Transfers in Karnataka.
• Report Cards in Bangalore, 1994-2004.
• Right to Information Rajasthan and Delhi.
• Strengthening Anti-Corruption Institutions
• The Central Vigilance Commission
• The Karnataka Lok Ayukta
• Public Interest Litigation and the Courts.

21
Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms
Premature Transfers

• Karnataka reduced premature transfers through
  quantitative caps, computerized counseling in
  education, and public reporting of transfer
  numbers.
• New approaches might involve the creation of
  statutory civil services boards to restrict
  transfers, legal minimum tenures, and a stability
  index to track transfers.

22
Aggregate Transfers, Karnataka, 2000-05
23
Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms Report
Cards

• Report cards prod agency heads into action, and
  mobilize public pressure for change.

24
Karnatakas Lok Ayukta Focus on Service Delivery

• Investigates corruption/maladministration budget
  U.S.1.6 million five hundred officers activist
  judge appointed in 2001
• Investigations
• Drug adulteration
• Public hospitals (absenteeism, exploitation)
• Transport and registration departments.
• Corruption in municipal government
• Volume of complaints triple in one year.
• Wide publicity may be the best way to check
  corruption when courts dont work.

25
Lok Ayukta In Action
26
Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms Other
Lessons

• Access to information laws work best when appeals
  processes are simple and pressure from below
  encourage their use.
• The role of the Courts in improving delivery has
  been positive Need to guard against risk of
  supplanting administrative initiatives to reform
  services.

27
Tactics of Reform

• Justifying reform by invoking past traditions
• Dealing with employees (e.g. accommodating
  potential spoilers, guaranteeing no job losses
  upfront, improving working conditions).
• Activating constituencies that gain from reform
  against opponents of the process
• Sequencing is critical for Success
• All reforms were incremental in nature the big
  bang approach in the rare cases where it was
  tried did not deliver results. Vested interests
  were overcome in many cases.

28
Sustaining Reforms

• Popular reforms usually survived political
  transitions.
• Bipartisan consensus helped sustainability.
• Grounding reforms in law made them harder to
  reverse.
• Sound revenue models facilitated sustainability.

29
Transplanting Reforms

• Not a mechanical process reforms are often
  highly context-bound.
• Competition between agencies, cities, and states
  help spread of ideas/innovations.
• NGO networks facilitate transmission of knowledge
  about good practices.
• GoI can play an important role in facilitating
  cross-state/agency interactions establishing an
  overarching monitoring system and structuring
  incentives for reform.