The mistakes of learning opportunities and excuses of stifling reform in Municipal Services

It takes a long time, effort and commitment to achieve fundamental reform in the engagement of private sector provision in municipal service delivery. The big challenge lies in seizing upon the mistakes as learning opportunities, rather than use them as excuses of stifling reform that can spearhead Tanzania economy. NYASIGO KORNEL reviews the paper which was presented recently at Tanzania Global Development and Learning Centre (TGDLC).

What literature always portray about advantages of engaging the private sector in provision of municipal services without ensuring the fundamentals that make them successful are put in place leads to a worse situation.

Innovative approaches that foster co-ordination and integration of public sector governance and service provision have not always ensured adequately, thus slowing the municipal services.

In many African countries, the history of the service delivery and provision of many of these services reveals a systematic retreat from colonial times when local governments were responsible for delivering most of these services. At present, in most African countries, either higher tiers of government provide many of the services directly, or by parastatals, the private sector or even the community itself.

In the paper presented at Tanzania Global Development Learning Centre (TGDLC), Mark Osiche, the Programme Officer Association of Local Government Authorities of Kenya, ALGAK, says that lack of coordination and integration between the municipal development stakeholders has led many to question the sustainability of both the infrastructure and services that are financed.

According to Osiche, the local government is expected to perform local governments either perform or are usually expected to perform include: refuse collection; refuse disposal, retail markets, parks and gardens, recreation, public hygiene and sanitation, drainage, sewerage, dispensaries and clinics, roads and bridges, traffic control, primary education, preventive health, fire prevention and land-use planning.
He mentioned other services to include water and electricity supply, municipal transportation, rural public transport, vehicle licensing, small industry development, agricultural extension, community development, tourism, labour exchange, air and water pollution control, environmental protection and police.

From the mid-80s, onwards, structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) have spearheaded Tanzanian economy. Under the on-going public sector performance improvement reforms, water supply, health and education have are mandated responsibilities of local governments.

According to Osiche, this move has resulted into a number of problems and challenges. First, the establishment of service boards is now a major are of conflict between sector ministries and local governments as both want to control them. The conflicts continue despite an earlier cabinet decision that service boards should be made accountable to local governments.

Second, the paper mentioned that the public sector lacks the will and capacity to provide municipal services and regulate the private sector effectively.

Third, the Tanzanian experience has aptly shown that there is a danger that the international promotion of private sector participation in municipal service delivery, particularly when conditional on development assistance, undermines local polities to resolve their own service delivery issues. This dependency not only makes it difficult for the local governments to negotiate a “fair deal”, but effectively overrides local political processes.

The first explaination is that over the past two decades or so, local governments in most African countries have faced increasing demands to achive “value for money” offer better public services at a lower cost within the context of an overall environment of growing fiscal pressures.

During presentation, Osiche raised the arguments on the need of private sector engagement in municipal service delivery. He says, “Engaging the private sector in provision of municipal services is critical in securing investment finance in cases of inadequate public sector funding with increasing demands for services while widening the scope of services and productivity.

“Explanation is that the role of local governments is meant to go much beyond mere delivery. Local governments are expected to be responsible for the regulations, quality control, monitoring, long-term planning for sustainable growth and development and general supervision to ensure that all categories of the population in the locality are served at all times,” he says.

The issues of participatory democracy and responsive governance are increasingly in emphasis. He mentioned Brazil for instance, municipalities were given the right to establish councils of stakeholders comprising unelected representatives of community groups which deal with such important matters as urban development, education, the environment, health and sanitation. Participatory democracy at the local government level has thus become an important factor in fostering accountability and citizen’s involvement in local governance. It has also promoted greater concern with the quality of services to residents.

Osiche finally acknowledged that, it takes a long time, effort and commitment to achieve fundamental reform in the engagement of private sector provision in municipal service delivery. The big challenge lies in seizing upon the mistakes as learning opportunities, rather than use them as excuses of stifling reform.

Nyasigo Kornel is Communication Officer of Health and Poverty Resource Centre (HPRC) and an experienced journalist.