Municipal service delivery touches the basic public amenities provided to the citizens. But the services provided as a governmental function are below the standard requirements, and unsatisfactory to the public. Government functionaries need to transform from being providers to regulators and monitors of the services. This calls for induction of outside skills into the municipal system to bring about changes. There is a general apprehension that private sector’s involvement would not be sustainable as it would escalate costs due to profit maximization motives, monopolistic attitudes and fears of failures.
Based on a research study a new municipal service delivery model has been formulated to overcome the above situation. The findings of this study are twofold: (i) the municipal system left to itself will collapse as there is neither organizational commitment nor employee motivation for committed delivery of services, and (ii) the private system left to itself cannot provide a sustainable long term service as it will be driven by profit motives and lack of social commitment leading to monopolistic approaches.
Differing from a simple outsourcing model, the research proposes an assignment model. According to this a new breed of enterprise system called Municipal Enterprises should provide municipal services under Municipal System through an Assignment Model. The model therefore is called Assignment Model of Municipal Enterprises and Systems or in short AMMES model.
The AMMES model of municipal service delivery is based on appropriate assignment of municipal areas to private service providers for service delivery. The research provides details of (i) implementation process, (ii) financial cost effectiveness, (iii) success parameters and (iv) protection against market failures. It also invents a new service sector for providing municipal service delivery. The model is universally applicable in all municipal bodies with appropriate adaptation.
Author: Dr. C.T. Abraham
Mountains in Plains 