Approaches to and Experiences with Meeting Urban Sector

1

• Approaches to and Experiences with Meeting Urban
  Sector
• Capacity Enhancement Demands
• Lessons from India and Sierra Leone
• Barjor Mehta
• World Bank Institute

2

• Experiences from
• Financial Institutions Reform and Expansion
  Debt (FIRE-D), USAID-sponsored initiative
• World Bank Projects
• India
• Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project II (TNUDP)
• Andhra Pradesh Urban Reform and Municipal
  Services Project (APURMS) under preparation
• Sierra Leone
• Institutional Reform and Capacity Building
  Project (IRCB) under preparation

3

• Upfront Clear Statements of Results is Absolutely
  Essential

4

• FIRE-D
• Enable municipalities to raise capital from the
  national financial market
• (1995 1999)

5

• Initially only one major city (Ahmedabad) signed
  on and became the projects Champion
• All project resources concentrated there but
  dialogue and links with wait and see cities
  maintained and encouraged
• Local consultants/institutions paired with
  international consultants process change
  (international accounting standards), knowledge
  development (how to/not to)
• International credit rating agencies paired
  with local rating agencies to develop an Indian
  system to rate municipalities

6

• Every time Ahmedabad reached a milestone
  extensive publicity given
• Champion provided reference and knowledge to
  late comers
• A competition began between cities to become
  creditworthy
• Market for private consultants opened up
• Situation in 2003
• Large number of cities now have credit ratings
• several have raised funds from the financial
  market
• active and growing private sector consulting and
  training market

7
TNUDP and (AP-URMS) Move resource management in
municipalities from single entry system to
accrual accounting system Improve service
delivery Provide / upgrade existing city-wide
infrastructure networks
8

• Changing Accounting Systems
• Big challenge 110 municipalities in TN -- need
  to design content for and continued training
• 2,000 staff in (a) book keeping (b) computer
  skills (c) financial reporting
• gt 4,000 elected councilors in new systems of (a)
  strategic planning (b) budget formulation (c)
  resource monitoring
• 8,000 municipal staff responsible for service
  delivery in (a) estimating budget requests (b)
  soliciting private participation (tendering,
  contracting) (c) monitoring projects.

9

• Accounting manuals prepared by local government
  auditors, commented upon by Indian Institute of
  Chartered Accountants
• Team of local government auditors became mentors
  (one auditor per five to seven municipalities)
• Had to visit each municipality every two weeks
  and work with staff for two days be available to
  answer questions over the phone (how do I?)
• Ensure the local staff transfer cash-based
  ledgers into new accounting system based on
  standard manuals

10

• Standard computer package chosen by the state
• TOR for computer skills training prepared by a
  partnership of experienced local accountants
• Skill benchmarks for staff clearly established
  (ability to independently use all modules of
  software)
• EOI/bids solicited from private computer training
  institutions in each municipality/region --
  competition
• Computer skills training provided by
  locally-based trainers to municipal staff
• Mentors evaluated training w.r.t. skill
  benchmarks reached by staff

11

• Improving Service Delivery
• Each city required to formulate its own
  Citizens Charter
• What every citizen should expect from the local
  government through precise statements
• birth and death certificate to be issued within
  one hour
• property tax bill payment not to exceed 30
  minutes
• garbage pick up every day
• Complaint registration (15 minutes) and redressal
  (max. one day)
• Each municipality prepares an action plan
  including capacity building requirements on how
  to change/modify processes

12

• Project PMU created a panel of pre-qualified
  consultants through competitive bidding
• Municipalities encouraged to shop for
  consultants to assist with process change and
  training
• Based on level of reforms / change achieved in
  accounting systems and service delivery,
  municipality qualifies for capital investment for
  city-wide infrastructure
• Cities eligible for investment envelope
  proportional to reform achieved

13

• IRCB (Sierra Leone)
• Post-conflict country under stress
• (Re)Start Town Councils

14

• Modest but strategic goals
• End of first year
• Valuation office completes input of Valuation
  Roll source data for all wards
• Rates office able to produce Demand Notes from
  Rate Register
• Cash Deposit office able to post payments
  direct into town accounting system
• Payroll sheets produced on a monthly basis
• Functional Town Treasuries

15

• Town Clerk of Kampala to provide TA
• Informal association of Town Clerks, Treasurers
  to decide on standard formats and schedules
• Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sierra
  Leone contracted to provide on the job training
  (performance indicators)
• One/two CAs paired with each town council
• Town treasurers office staff learning by doing
• Skills training (book keeping, computers)
  provided in office when appropriate benchmarks
  are reached

16

• Capacity Enhancement not an end in itself but in
  the context of pre-determined and agreed upon
  process of measurable change