<p>This study investigates the challenges facing the management of public enterprises in the Democratic of Congo. The study is based on the hypothesis that poor performance by state-owned enterprises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been influenced by inadequate management which has led to the dissatisfaction of citizens. Due to this problem increasing attention is being paid by the DRC Government to encouraging private sector involvement in services such as water and electricity. This study investigates the arguments for and against privatization, especially in the water and electricity sectors. In pursuing this debate the study explores the following main research question: To what extent will the DRC Reform Law aimed at transforming the commercialisation of public enterprises enhance the effectiveness of basic services such as water and electricity services in the DRC? A case study of the city of Bukavu in the eastern DRC is used to explore this question.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Dept. of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Econ.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Xeror copy of typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 83-87).

Thesis (M.Econ.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 83-87). Also available in print.

During the last decade, the number of local public utilities has experienced a significant increase in Europe. The provision of public services by means of this type of companies requires municipalities to establish different forms of control and regulation in order to align economic and social interests. This paper analyses the Spanish system of local public utilities from the point of view of the characteristics of the governance style applied by municipalities to steer and monitor the activities. The results evidence that, among other things, the percentage of equity participation influences on the mechanisms adopted by local authorities to apply external control on public utilities. / El fenómeno de las sociedades municipales ha experimentado un notable auge en la mayoría de países europeos y ha llevado a algunos municipios a constituir verdaderos holdings municipales. La provisión de servicios públicos a través de este tipo de sociedades obliga a la administración local a establecer nuevos mecanismos de control para tratar de alinear los intereses económicos y sociales. Este trabajo estudia el caso de las sociedades municipales en España así como las características de los estilos de gobernanza aplicados en el control de dichas entidades. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto, entre otros aspectos, la influencia del porcentaje de participación del municipio en el capital de la sociedad sobre los mecanismos de control adoptados y la intensidad de los mismos.

This thesis consists of three papers which contribute to the literatures on regulation and organizational economics.<p><p><p>The first part of the dissertation addresses questions related to the procurement decisions of private and public organizations. In particular it focuses on how the anticipation of renegotiating the contractual terms during the execution of a procurement contract affects the initial arrangements between the parties. Renegotiation may involve the design itself of the goods which are procured, and not just their price or the time of their delivery. A plausible explanation for its pervasiveness is the existence of transaction costs which prevents contracts from being complete. This is especially true for more sophisticated and customized goods, such as new infrastructures or cars' and aircrafts' parts or components. Ex-post these goods may fail to fit the buyer's specific needs and/or may exhibit flaws unforeseen at the planning stage.<p><p><p>In the first two chapters, I show that the anticipation of ex-post adaptations has critical implications for many procurement choices, such as that of the contractual agreement, the award mechanism, and the delegation of the design task to the suppliers. Therefore, a proper inclusion of design failures into the analysis of procurement contracts can help broaden our understanding of the wide variety of procurement modes and outcomes observed in the real world. My analysis offers an explanation for the procurement practices adopted in complex manufacturing and construction industries. Moreover, it can provide useful guidance for public procurement. Governments face tight restrictions in their choices of the procurement modes and for this reason they should carefully evaluate whether or not to adopt the best practices of the private sector.<p><p><p>The second part of the dissertation concerns the optimal design of an organization. In many organizations the task of evaluating an agent's performance is delegated to a third party, a supervisor, who can opportunistically misreport information. The question of how the provision of incentives in hierarchies is affected by the supervisor's opportunism is of great importance since it can improve our understanding of the internal organization of firms and can have broad applications to regulatory design.<p><p><p>The third chapter of the thesis, co-authored with Luca Livio (ECARES, FNRS), contributes to this line of research by studying the optimal task a supervisor should be charged with in the presence of corruption concerns. We highlight the existence of a trade-off between monitoring the agent's effort choice and auditing it ex-post, which arises when the two faces of corruption, collusion and extortion, are present. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / This study investigates the challenges facing the management of public enterprises in the Democratic of Congo. The study is based on the hypothesis that poor performance by state-owned enterprises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been influenced by inadequate management which has led to the dissatisfaction of citizens. Due to this problem increasing attention is being paid by the DRC Government to encouraging private sector involvement in services such as water and electricity. This study investigates the arguments for and against privatization, especially in the water and electricity sectors. In pursuing this debate the study explores the following main research question: To what extent will the DRC Reform Law aimed at transforming the commercialisation of public enterprises enhance the effectiveness of basic services such as water and electricity services in the DRC? A case study of the city of Bukavu in the eastern DRC is used to explore this question. / South Africa

One of the major sources of income to South African Municipalities is property rates. Income generated from property rates is meant to develop and deliver services to residents living in the said Municipal area. The main aim of the research was to identify the causes and effects of the non-payment of residential property rates, and also to develop workable strategies to maximise the collection of residential property rates in order to ensure developmental growth sustenance, specifically in Mahikeng Municipal area. Related literature was reviewed on the non-financial viability of Municipalities, maintenance of public infrastructure, service delivery and Municipal development plans in establishing the relationship with non-payment of residential property rates. Four hypotheses were set to guide the research with two testing positive with high level of confidence using the chi square method of testing. The research methodology employed in the research was mainly quantitative where the results and findings obtained from the questionnaire were statistically analysed. The research revealed that: The Mahikeng Local Municipality has failed to find the right medium to send rates bills to clients on time, is not taking active responsibility to recover rates debts, does not provide quality service delivery and the reluctance by locals to pay their property rates. The effects thereof, are the inability of the Municipality to deliver effective and efficient services, lack of maintenance of public infrastructure and development in the area. By implementing various options such as email, sms and the post to send rates bills to property owners, by employing different payment options, for example debit orders, transfers, bank deposits and discounts for property owners and embarking on periodic public awareness campaigns in educating the community regarding the importance of payment of property rates could serve as effective mechanisms to address the non-payment of residential property rates faced by the Mahikeng Local Municipality.

Allmännyttigheter, så som el- och vattennäten, skola och polis, vägnätet och lokaltrafik har en essentiellroll i vårt välfärdssystem. Frågan om hur finansieringen och förvaltningen av dessa allmännyttigheterorganiseras och struktureras har varit väsentlig inte bara för allmännyttigheterna i fråga, utan även variten inblick i hur vi organiserar och strukturerar hela vårt samhälle. Denna studie bygger vidare på tidigareforskning om allmännyttigheter, partnerskap och kommunal samverkan vid undersökningen av Stor-Stockholms avloppsreningshantering, där en lösning växte fram under mitten av 1900-talet. Enkvalitativ fallstudie av den nordöstra intressentgruppen, sed mera Käppalaförbundet, utfördes för attbesvara frågorna varför, och på vilka sätt, samverkan var viktigt för att lösa avloppsproblemet iStockholm, hur kommunalförbund kan ses som ett partnerskapsnätverk, samt vilka fördelar somkommunalförbundet gav, som ej kunde förses av strikt kommunala lösningar eller lösningar pålänsnivå? Fallstudien avgränsades till perioden 1945-1969, och syftade till att analyserahanteringen av allmännyttigheter i Sverige genom just kommunalförbund, en specifik typ avinter-offentligt samverkanssystem. Perioden valdes då det under 1950-talet både genomfördesen kommunalreform och den kommunala lagstiftningen ändrades. Genom att utnyttja Elanderspartnerskapsmodell, baserat på karaktärsdrag, tendenser och effekter av partnerskap, framgårdet att kommunalförbund kan analyseras med samma krav och villkor som ett offentlig-privatpartnerskap. Studien gör klart att samverkan varit ett nyckelord för skapandet av lösning föravloppsproblemet i Stockholm, vilket framgår i både i den regionplaneutredning somgenomfördes samt den generalplan som lades fram av länsstyrelsen. Partnerskapsmodellen gavett möjligt svar varför, då den visade att samverkan förväntades utöka de ekonomiska resursernaför de deltagande aktörerna samt skapa en synergieffekt hos aktörerna. Det framgår även attmedan en läns-täckande regionallösning möte flexibilitetsproblem, var förbundet tillräckligtlitet för att förhandlingar skulle övervinna problemet. Till sist framgår förbundet som ettutmärkt sätt att upprätta finansiell stabilitet, så väl som demokratiska värden, vilket är önskvärtför policynätverk inom den offentliga sektorn. / Public utilities, such as the electricity and water networks, schools and police, the road network andlocal transport, have an essential role in our welfare system. The question of how the financing andmanagement of these public utilities is organized and structured has been essential not only for the publicutilities in question, but also becomes an insight into how we organize and structure our entire society.This study builds on previous research on public utilities, partnership and municipal collaboration in theinvestigation of Greater Stockholm's sewage treatment management, where a solution emerged duringthe mid-20th century. A qualitative case study of the North-East stakeholders group, later known as‘Käppalaförbundet’, was carried out to answer the questions why, and in what ways, cooperation wasimportant to solve the sewage problem in Stockholm, how municipal associations can be seen as apartnership network, as well as what advantages the municipal association gave, which could not beprovided by strictly municipal solutions or solutions at a county level? The case study was limited to thetime-period 1945-1969 and aimed to analyze the management of public utilities in Sweden throughmunicipal associations, a specific type of inter-public cooperation system. The period was chosen since,during the 1950s, both a municipal reform was conducted, and the municipal legislation was changed.By using Elander’s partnership model, based on character traits, tendencies and effects of partnerships,it becomes clear that municipal associations can be analyzed using the same requirements as a public-private partnership. The study makes it clear that cooperation was a keyword for the creation of asolution to the sewage problem in Stockholm, which is evident in both the regional investigation thatwas conducted and the general plan that was put forward by the county board. The partnership modelgave a possible answer why, as it showed that the collaboration was expected to increase the financialresources of the participators and create a synergy effect among the actors. It also appears that while acounty-wide regional solution faced flexibility problems, the association was small enough fornegotiations to overcome this issue. Finally, the municipal association appears as an excellent means ofestablishing financial stability, as well as democratic values, which is desirable for policy networks inthe public sector.