What’s in a name?
Officials are eyeing up Te Aponga Uira for a change

The creation of a new government agency has been recommended as a positive way forward for improving the delivery of infrastructure services.
The recommendations are yet to be approved by government.
The recommendation comes in an undisclosed report dated 22 February 2010 from The Asia Development Bank (ADB) following an analysis of the current situation in the Cook Islands.
The ADB recommends creating a new agency called the Public Utilities Corporation or Authority to oversee Power, Water and Sanitation services.
This idea is not new and has been recommended previously.
Rather than establish a completely new agency, the proposal suggests transferring existing functions from Ministry for Planning and Infrastructure (MOIP) to Te Aponga Uria (TAU) and giving TAU a new name. It would also mean some restructuring of Te Aponga Uira and not adopting an earlier proposal to create a National Water Authority and a Rarotonga Water Board (There had been some resistance on the part of government to the setting up of these Water bodies after the proposal had been included in the National Sustainable Development Plan in 2007 as a key strategic target).
As to what will happen to MOIP after this, the ADB recommends setting up business units to focus on policy, planning, management, issue of regulatory permits, monitoring of performance, enforcement and contract out service delivery work to the private sector such as roading. It is a scenario that sets government up to introduce fees and charges, user pays in other words.
The ADB proposes that the outer islands not be affected immediately but outer island issues be addressed during the reform process.
Why the need for change?
As a result of a long period in which funding for investment and maintenance in infrastructure had been inadequate, national infrastructure is in many cases now reaching the end of its life cycle and is failing to keep pace with changing demand. This has occurred in an environment where Infrastructure Governance Frameworks (IGF) has begun to fail further constraining the effective and efficient delivery of public services.
Poor management and inadequate investment in maintenance and rehabilitation has resulted in aging and failing physical infrastructure both on the main island of Rarotonga and on the Outer Islands. Infrastructure is failing to meet current demand or to support the Government’s objective of private sector-led growth. There is recognition of an urgent need for a more institutionalised approach to infrastructure asset management and planning with a medium to long term planning horizon.
Current levels of service provision and the quality of asset management processes are generally poor and far from uniform across the infrastructure subsectors. Adherence to sound principals of good management is considerably stronger in the corporatized agencies as compared to the line ministries. Within the line ministries there has generally been a pre-occupation with either creating new infrastructure, or with rehabilitating existing infrastructure, which has deteriorated due to years of conflict or lack of funds.
Why is the ADB involved?
The Government of the Cook Islands has sought to strengthen infrastructure governance, build capacity and improve the financial and operational management of its assets. It has sought support from the ADB for capacity development for improved infrastructure services delivery in the sectors of transport and communications, water sanitation and solid waste management, government buildings, and energy.
In response to the request for support, in 2007 the ADB has funded a project preparation technical assistance consultancy to establish the nature and scope of support required. The final reports were produced in April 2009. With this outcome the government and ADB has entered into program cluster and loan agreement (Cook Islands: Economic Recovery Support Program, Project) to fund much of the capital works that are needed to compliment the infrastructure governance changes that are expected to be required.
Concurrently in 2008 the Audit Office completed a review of the management functions, operational outputs, and systems of the Ministry of Works (MOW). It had far reaching recommendations for reforming the MOW and infrastructure sector. In November 2008, the MOW and the Office of the Minister for Outer Islands were merged to form the MOIP. This was the first in a series of measures designed to address some of the issues raised by the Audit Office and ADB.
What are the next steps?
Once approved by government the outputs of infrastructure services delivery improvement project (ISDIP) become triggers for the second subprogram of this Economic Recovery Support Program, and are expected to have been completed by October 2010. Specifically these key triggers include:
1. 2011 and 2012 budgets provide for continued implementation of infrastructure and building work investment priorities as stated in the Infrastructure Master Plan.
2. Implementation of key elements of the Infrastructure Governance Framework including:
• Preparation and Cabinet approval of policy statements for each infrastructure sector (roads, airports, ports and harbours, government buildings, energy, water supply, sanitation and waste management) including provisions for user charges, cost recovery and community service obligations;
• Preparation and Cabinet approval of asset management and forward budgeting frameworks for each infrastructure sector; and
• Tabling in Parliament of amendments to legislation governing infrastructure service delivery and institutions, including institutional improvement and reforms, agency responsibilities and powers for public infrastructure provision, ongoing asset maintenance management, provision for internal and external audit, and as relevant user charges and cost recovery, and multi-year budgeting.
3. Adoption of a 3-year medium-term budget framework in 2011
Why restructure MOIP?
Although MOIP was established in late 2008 through the amalgamation of Office of the Minister for Outer Islands and the Ministry of Works, efforts to realign and re-orientate the new organisation in accordance with the recommendations of the Audit Office have been slow and painful. Despite efforts to establish a new organisational framework within the ministry, entrenched attitudes persist and organisational confusion remains.
While Audit Office identified shortfalls and recommended a number of significant changes, not all seem to have been adopted and as a result there appears to be a confused understanding of the MOIP organisational function and role. In this environment of ambiguity, the organisation seems to have lost its direction and drive to improve itself.
It is clear that the organisation is keen to re-establish its organisational integrity but needs the tools to undertake a systematic approach to restructuring rather than the piecemeal approach that is currently taking place. Accordingly, ADB hopes to bring order and consistency through functional clarifications and inform the organisational development activities that are taking place from within. This process requires kick starting the commercialisation process of the service delivery components of the organisation.
Why choose Te Aponga?
• TAU is already established and a is going concern, it would be a comparatively simple matter to change their mandate rather than establishing a new entity;
• As both power and water services have the same client base, there will be no need to establish a new client database, billing system or administrative set up, these functions could be shared.
• TAU has what is considered an effective and efficient business model and has an effective Board with the capacity to take on this additional mandate,
• The power, water and sanitation services have similar cost recovery models which make amalgamation seamless;
• TAU already exists as a proven commercial entity and is more likely to quickly engender effective commercialised practices and operating culture into the water and sanitation sub sectors than through a completely new water and sanitation board;
• The TAU COE has already indicated a willingness to take on the additional services;
• By charging TAU management with managing the transfer process, a champion for change is established at the outset and there is a high likelihood that transition would happen smoothly and swiftly.

Headlines : Times 290 02 March 2009
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