State‐owned Enterprises: NWSC's Turnaround in Uganda

Abstract: Oversight agencies in the water sector emphasize performance monitoring based on outputs, such as customers served, volume delivered, and service quality. However, bureaucratic tendencies can curtail operational innovation and creativity. In situations where managers lack full operating knowledge and capacities, proactive and consultative monitoring and regulation can yield benefits. This study reviews the results of Uganda's National Water and Sewerage Corporation's (NWSC) approach to performance monitoring (and ‘self‐regulation’). The purpose of this study is to outline corrective actions undertaken by the NWSC Management and Staff to turn around performance, the sequencing of those steps, and the outcomes from this reform program. The NWSC focuses on promoting improvements in technical processes and input selection. Improvements in service quality and network expansion resulted from aligning performance improvement initiatives with the organization's financial performance and team development. The program's success required managing organizational rigidities and moving towards full cost‐recovery. In particular, organizational incentives and information flows encouraged managers to reduce rules and procedures that hindered strong performance. African proverbs are interspersed throughout the article to underscore key themes and lessons for those designing, implementing, and evaluating infrastructure sector reform initiatives.     

State-of-the-art of Russia’s heat supply systems

The paper overviews the contemporary state of Russia’s heat supply systems and fuel consumption within its centralized part, the structure of heat consumption by economic sectors and types of industrial consumers. As shown, the centralized heat supply systems, providing the major part of country’s economy with low temperature heat, have heat losses and accident rate at a critical level. The state of decentralized heat supply systems of low rise buildings is not covered by national statistics at all. A second paper on the prospects and development of Russia’s heat supply systems will be published in a subsequent issue.     

An Analysis of Third Party Consumer Complaint Handling Mechanisms: The Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection

This paper presents a preliminary analysis of third party complaint handling mechanisms, based on data obtained from the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection. Specifically, the study focuses on the types of complaints processed by the Agency, the factors which affect the redress received by consumers and the length of investigation time.     

Economic analysis of development prospects for air transport in Russia’s sparsely populated regions

This article analyzes the prospects for the development of air transport in remote and inaccessible regions of Russia with a low population density. The influence of the economic and geographical specificity of such regions on the duration and cost of air travel is studied. A complex of organizational and technological solutions and government support measures aimed at improving the quality and accessibility of air carriages for the population of sparsely populated regions is suggested.     

Interregional exchange as a development factor of the cluster structure of a regional economy

This article considers theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of the formation of the cluster structure of a regional economy, shows the role of interregional exchange in this process and presents parameter estimates of interregional exchange on the basis of a gravity model (on the example of the Republic of Bashkortostan).