Sustaining High Performing Public Enterprises: Case Study of National Water and Sewerage Corporation, Uganda

Sustaining High Performing Public Enterprises presents steps taken by National Water and Sewerage Corporation of Uganda, a typical public enterprise, to sustain a high performance momentum after over 15 years of successful utility reforms. Specifically, the author pinpoints key achievements during the period 2013–2018 including growth in geographical coverage from 23 to 240 towns, increase in connections from 310,000 to about 600,000; revenues growing more than three times and network growth improving from 80kms per year to over 2000kms per year. The concept of new public management (NPM) is used to set the scene for a case description of various initiatives and innovations implemented. A balanced scorecard framework is used to characterize the various activities. The book highlights a shift from over-emphasis on positive cash-flows alone to a balanced approach to ‘water for all’ citizens. The need to balance technical work and political aspirations is highlighted. Also featured is the nexus between utility operations and environmental protection to ensure sustainable water supply. The cardinal role of aligning staff needs to organizational needs and working for win-win solutions is also highlighted.

Sustaining High Performing Public Enterprises presents strong lessons and conclusions for utility leaders and policy makers intending to reform their utilities to create value for citizens. It is also of value to academicians and researchers for scholarly studies in water and sanitation governance and management.

List of Acronyms

About the Author

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2 - Internal perspective

Chapter 3 - The people perspective

Chapter 4 - Financial perspective

Chapter 5 - Customer and community perspective

Chapter 6 - Summary conclusions and recommendations

Index

Praise for Utility Benchmarking and Regulation in Developing Countries, also by Silver Mugisha:

“The performance of utilities, especially in developing countries, has continued to face daunting challenges. One of the challenges lies with adapting effective monitoring and regulatory systems to ensure successful implementation of strategic plans. Dr. Mugisha's book offers concrete tailor-made methods used to sharpen performance of utilities in developing countries. The book is interspersed with practical examples in performance planning, incentive design, modes of performance monitoring, customer relations and pro-poor benchmarking, among others. These are unique areas of focus in the design of effective performance monitoring systems. I highly recommend this book as a useful catalyst for utility performance reforms in developing countries.”

Dr. Michael McGarry, International Consultant in Performance Systems and Governance, Cowater International Inc., Canada.  

“Dr. Mugisha’s Book is a nice primer to my own book: Making Public Enterprises Work. It gives a more detailed analysis of the fundamentals and methods of designing practical performance monitoring systems. Reading Dr. Mugisha’s book definitely enhances your deep understanding of ways of taming productivity in developing country-like utility settings.”

Dr. William T. Muhairwe, Managing Director, National Water and Sewerage Corporation, Uganda

“Performance monitoring and regulation of service industries is increasingly becoming a challenge for policy makers and managers charged with those institutions. In this regard, the main areas of focus relate to customer demands, incentive arrangements, innovative approaches, services for low income groups and design of performance improvement plans. Dr Mugisha’s book: “Utility Benchmarking and Regulation in Developing Countries” presents excellent insights into the practices, principles and examples of performance monitoring and incentive applications in real-life situations. It is one of the few books that address, in detail, different modes of performance monitoring approaches for sets of complex settings in developing countries. The book is an excellent ‘toolbox’ for researchers, academicians, utility managers and policy makers looking for sustainable service-oriented industry performance solutions in developing countries.”

Professor Venansius Baryamureeba, Vice Chancellor, Makerere University, Uganda