22388 Africa Transport Technical Note Road Management Initiative (RMI) Note no. 32 March 2001 Overcoming Obstacles to Implementation Reforming Road Management in Sub-Saharan Africa Francis N. Nyangaga The Road Management Initiative (RMI) has, over the past 10 years, worked wvith interested African countries to identify the underlying causes of poor road management policies, and ro develop an agenda of reforms that will facilitate sustainable management of the public road networks. The RMI works at the country level through broad based Steering Committees with a nominated RMI Coordinator as its secretariat, in close cooperation with World Bank and donor-supported programs in the road sector. Since its inception. the RMI has presentedprogress reports at the quad-annual PIARC World Road Congresses. The progress report to the Congress in Kuala Lumpur in 1999 was delivered by the RMI Country Coordinator for Kenya. Francis N. Nyangaga. This Francis N. Nyangaga is a Senior Technical Note is based on his report. Superintending Engineer with the Ministry of Roads and Public Works in Nairobi. He has a doctorate degree in Engineering from USA, and has been the RMI Policy reforms in SSA through a Sub-Saharan Africa Trans- Country Coordinatorfor Kenya for port Policy Program (SSATP). One of the last five years. African countries expanded their its components was the Road Main- The purpose ofthis series isto networks considerably in the 1960s tenance Initiative (RMI), which was share information on issues raised and 1970s. By the end of the 1980s. launched to address the problems in by the studies and work of the there were nearly two million km of the roads sub-sector SSATP The opinions expressed in the notes are those of the authors roads in SSA. These are among the The solution that emerged from and do not necessarily reflect the region's largest assets with a replace- the RMI program is commercializa- views of the World Bank or any of ment cost of at least $170 billion that tion: bring roads into the market its affiliated organizations. require some US$2-3 billion annu- place, charge for their use on a fee- For information on these notes, ally for routine and periodic mainte- for-services basis. and manage them contact the SSATP in the Africa nance to keep them in stable long- like any business enterprise. The Region of the World Bank, WVash- ington, DC. Internet address: term conditions. But in spite of their findings indicated that commercial- ssatp@worldbank.org. importance, most roads in SSA have izing management of roads is fea- been poorly managed and badly sible if complementary reforms are maintained with the result that undertaken in four areas referred to nearly a third of the $170 billion in- as the four basic building blocks for vestment has been lost through a sustainable reforms: lack of maintenance. (1) * create ownership by involving the In late 1980s, the United Nations road users in funding and man- Economic Commission for Africa and agement of roads to generate sup- the World Bank set the ball rolling to port for adequate road funding address the poor state of transport and control of agencies' monopoly services in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) power: L&W Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) * UNECA and The World Bank (__ 2 1 Transport in Africa * secure an adequate and stable flow of funding based Responsibility on dedicated user charges; * secure clear specification of all responsibilities, and their Governments have traditionally exercised thepower of owner. appropriate assignment with matching authority; and, as well as manager and provider of services, under fuzzy terms * strengthen management of roads by introducing sound of responsibilities. Specification of these will increase account- business practices to obtain value for money. ability. Any delegation to autonomous agencies will mean a loss of power in directing developments on a day-to-day basis. Most anglophone countries in SSA have now accepted While most SSA countries have legal statues defining the RMI message on commercialization and have or are public roads and adopted streets, these statues do not in the process of implementing at least part of the four clearly identify who should be responsible for these building blocks. But the pace of reforms and their impact roads and the implicit services to be provided. It is gen- on the ground has been much slower than expected (2,3). erally assumed that government at any level is respon- This paper explores what obstacles have contributed to sible for all. While government department most often the slow pace of reforms in SSA, and provides some sug- manage main roads, it is more difficult to define those gestions on how to overcome these and on how the RMI responsible for roads at the local government level be- may contribute to implementing this strategy. cause there rarely is any department of roads within the local authority. Management of local roads may fall un- Obstacles to implementation der the finance committee. While departments respon- sible for the main road network in most cases will have a more or less comprehensive inventory of the network Ownership under their management, this is rarely the case for local authorities. Governments do not normally like to share responsibility in Road departments rarely have clear guidelines on re- management of resources and prefer to manage roads like a social sponsibilities for protecting road assets, on suing third service. parties involved in damage of assets, or on possible li- Stakeholder representation in the management of roads abilities in connection with accidents due to defective is done through Road Boards. These may be established designs and maintenance policies. Functions other than under existing legislation (if there is a provision for that) road maintenance and development-such as traffic or by new legislation. While establishment through exist- regulation, axle load control, traffic safety, and enforce- ing legislation may be much easier than by new legisla- ment of traffic regulations-may be handled by other tion, such Boards will, without firm political support, not ministries, often with an equal lack of clarity as to the have the muscle required to facilitate implementation of responsibilities involved. sustainable reforms. Clear responsibilities with matching authority is es- Establishing Road Boards by new legislation shows the sential for effective management. But so is separate as- political will to make changes and provides the Boards signment of conflicting interests, and a granting of au- with the legal backing needed in the reform process. While thority and access to resources commensurate with this may create conflict with existing laws-giving those agreed responsibilities and performance targets. opposed to changes an opportunity to further delay the reforms-new legislation is the most appropriate method Adequate and stable flow of funds of establishing the Road Boards since it provides the long- term solution. Governments may agree to establish road funds based on user The reluctance to involve users in the management of charges over and above fiscal taxes to finance road maintenance. roads and implementation of reforms is even more pro- But they are reluctant to relinquish control of the cash flows nounced if a road fund managed by the public sector has and of opportunities to "borrow" funds for otherpurposes when already been established. The intoxicating size of road needs arises. fund proceeds is a powerful incentive for public sector Since independence, governments in SSA have faced decision-makers to delay implementation of any reforms increasing financial difficulties as demand for resources that would result in involvement of private sector stake- in all sectors grew faster than revenues because of holders in managing these resources. greater expectations of better services. Road mainte- nance, being a low profile activity, could always be post- Technical Note No.32 13 poned or deferred. In the late 1980s, most SSA coun- Sound business practices tries' annual budget allocations for road maintenance hardly exceeded 20 percent of required funds. Even While road works are increasingly contracted out to the pri- these highly insufficient budget allocations were at times vate construction industry on a competitive basis, SSA gov- cut without warning or not released on time due to other ernments are reluctant to delegate road management to autono- higher profile priorities. This insufficient and uncertain mous agencies operating according to sound business practices. funding for maintenance was one of the main causes of Government departments (ministries) are mostly cum- the large-scale deterioration of roads in SSA. bersome and largely ineffective managers, with little or Prodded by development partners, a number of SSA no commercial approach to the tasks at hand. Their re- countries established road funds that were mainly dedi- porting lines are poorly designed and encumbered by cated to road maintenance and funded by road user bureaucracy. The chief executive of the core function charges. But such funds established up to the early 1990s (director of roads) is way down the hierarchy, occupy- were no more than bank accounts managed by road ing a line manager position and reporting technical mat- agencies outside the government's general budgetary ters to the chief executive of the institution (principal or framework and control. These funds were vigorously permanent secretary) through administrative channels opposed by the IMF as they were inconsistent with that have no technical background. macroeconomic control, distorting the allocation of re- The unclear lines of responsibility do not provide the sources available for public spending, and incompatible road managers with much incentive, and neither do civil with the requirements of efficient cash and financial service salaries, which often are only one-fifth of those management. (4) The ministries of finance were only too paid to professional staff in the private sector. Inflation willing to have these funds scrapped and channel their has eroded salaries to such an extent that graduate en- revenues into the consolidated fund. gineers are today earning a tenth of what they were However, a Road Fund established within the frame- earning ten years ago. (1) work of the RMI's four basic building blocks should be Efforts to improve management systems in SSA have a genuine purchasing agency and thus meet the require- not been very successful. Highway Management and ments for IMF approval and be an efficient means of Maintenance Systems have been introduced that only delivering funding for road maintenance, perhaps road worked while the consultants were in place. Technol- capital expenditures as well. An appropriate objective- ogy transfers that should enable local expertise to take setting and performance-measuring framework which over management of the systems are not adequately is audited externally could ensure transparency and ac- carried out, and insufficient resources are allocated for countability. The user charge could form a link between regular update of data and systems. Systems manage- the level and quality of service and price to be paid. The ment is also an area that is not attractive to young pro- IMF accepted that Road Funds, with the right sort of fessionals. They would rather be managing road projects administrative and financial arrangements, could enjoy or regional offices, which may provide better moonlight- the freedom to focus on service delivery resulting in ing opportunities to compensate for the low salaries. greater efficiency and effectiveness. In the absence of an up-to-date, in-depth inventory A number of countries in anglophone Africa have or of their networks, governments have not bee* able to are in the process of establishing Road Funds through plan and deploy resources effectively; lack of compre- new legislation following the RMI concept, with man- hensive databases make it difficult for management to agement Boards dominated by representatives of pri- develop long-term revolving maintenancefrehabilitation vate sector stakeholders (Kenya, Ghana, Lesotho. plans. There are no clear records to review work plans Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia. and Zimbabwe). But as gov- and results to improve performance and productivity. ernments are still reluctant to delegate control of the cash Commercial accounting principles are rarely used; gov- flow from dedicated user levies and fees, the proceeds ernment agencies simply receive revenue and use it, are at times delayed and even "borrowed" to be used hardly accounting for its expenditure. Financial audits for other purposes. Requests for the adjustment of fee are only carried out as part of the large annual govern- rates to meet needs and compensate for inflation are often ment audits. which usually are only completed two to only considered after donor pressure. three years after the activities have been performed. and are thus not very useful or corrective. These audits basi- 4 1 Transport in Africa cally check to ensure that budget allocations have not * how the RMI concept may work in practice in Africa been exceeded and that funds have been handled ac- since no best practice examples are available from cording to government guidelines. countries at similar levels of development. (New The problem of inefficient public plant pools has not Zealand may be in a different league); been solved. Equipment serviceability and availability * how government may exercise its overall governance records cannot be relied on to produce reasonable work responsibilities by the ministry responsible for roads; plans; management works by rule of thumb and through and experience. * how to fund and manage the institutional reform pro- Most governments in SSA have undertaken some civil cess, including adequate capacity building at all levels service reforms to reduce public sector employment and as a solution to public sector redundancy problems. increase efficiency. However, the reforms have not im- proved the capacity of road management agencies be- There is thus need for implementation plans that are cause the retrenchment initiatives have left the agencies more comprehensive than those available at this date, without critical technical staff. Years of donor funded with strategies and budgets that clearly address the in- technical assistance and capacity building have neither dicated obstacles and other relevant issues. The RMI- left a noticeable impact as trained staff most often trans- which has greatly contributed to the reform achieve- fer to the private sector, which provides far better terms ments so far-could also be a useful instrument to facili- and conditions for practicing their skills. tate the drafting and implementation of such plans and, as a multi-donor supported initiative, help to coordinate Overcoming the obstacles-the way forward donor support to the reform activities. This role will, however, require a strengthening of RMI's capacity and Stustainable reformis caznnot be achtieved without a consis- resources commensurate with the desired extent and tenit enablinig policy anid institutionzal framiework, anid a level of activities, and perhaps a review of its current coniprehensive program for tranisformation, capacity organization to ensure its effectiveness in relation to the buildinzg, anid mitigation of socio-econiomriic impact. character and focus of the mission. The most successful RMI-inspired reform moves so far have been the establishment of Road Funds with broad-based management boards. These boards have generated more funds for maintenance and enabled private sector stakeholders to influence and monitor the References use of these funds, and have increasingly contracted out works and services through competitive tendering. But 1. Heggie, Ian G. Management and Financing of Roads, An little progress has been made towards clarifying the web Agenda for Reform. World Bank Technical Paper Number 275, Africa of responsibilities within the sector, transferring road Techniical Series. The World Bank, Washington D.C., 1995. management to autonomous agencies with an author- 2. Sylte Ole Kr. Review of the Road Sector in Sub-Sahara African ity matching their responsibilities, and facilitating man- (SSA) Countries. Oslo, April 1999 agement according to sound business practices. 3. Sylte, Ole Kr. Appraisal of RMI Concepts Irmplementatiorn in The obstacles to implementation of the entire pack- SSACountries. Oslo, April 1999. age of required reforms are not only due to governments 4. Potter Barry H. Dedicated Road Funds: A Preliminary View on unwillingness to share management of resources and a World Bank Initiative. IMF Paper oni Policy Analysis and Assess- works with the private sector stakeholders. Of impor- ment, International Monetary Fund, Fiscal Affairs Departmenit. tance also is government uncertainty about: Washington D.C., June 1997. The Road Management Initiative was launched in 1988 by the United Nations Economic Commission forAfrca (UNECA) and the World Bank, under the auspices of the Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP). Presently, nineteen African countries are collabo- rating within the framework of the RMI. The Road Maintenance Initiative is administered by the World Bank'sAfrca Region, and supported by the governments of Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the European Union.