NEWS

Dr. William Muhairwe has put the techniques he used to turn around the failing corporation he inherited in 1998 in a book, MICHAEL MUBANGIZI talked to him:

What is your book about?

I should first tell you what inspired us to write it. In most developing countries, we have a problem of not sharing knowledge. We have good people who have done good things, but have disappeared and none of their successors know what they did. I felt that what we have done in National Water, however small, should be an opener to other business and political managers to share their experiences in managing society. The book is about men and women who have made it work ill a public enterprise which was at the verge of being privatized, a company which was regarded as an underdog among public companies and was despised by customers and donors. So, we are writing what we did to turn around the fortunes of the company since 1998 when the new management came in.

So what makes public enterprises work?

The biggest success factor for public enterprises is the autonomy that they get from the owners; in this case, government, their direct supervisors, the ministries and politicians. Once politicians, especially ministers, start meddling into the running of institutions (by) sending chits, making telephone calls, wanting to employ their brothers, cousins and voters or claiming that the management has not done them a personal  favour and therefore they are insubordinate, then public enterprises don't survive.

Managers of these corporations must also be transparent, committed as they want their stakeholders to be. If a minister calls you to give his son job and you decline but the next day he hears that you have employed your son or brother, then you will be in trouble. You must walk the talk and show, that what you are refusing your senior to do, you are also not doing it. You also don't ask for autonomy to be lazy, go drinking and don't do your work then the government or shareholders should come in. There is nobody who is going to let his cows die because he wants to give freedom to labourers on the farm.

How have you dealt with political interference'?

We live in a world of mutual understanding 3ildcooperation. You have to understand your seniors, you must be able to look into their eye and know what they want. They must also be able to look into your eyes and see what you are up to. They shouldn't see any mischief in you.

So, we have not been saying no to all what our political leaders or our other leaders want us to do.1f the minister sends me a chit that I employ his son, I explain to him that in National Water, we take [graduates) with upper [second] degrees; so, if his soil has an upper, let him come. But if he doesn't have it and he has a lower, I explain to the minister that unfortunately we have others lining up who even have first class degrees. So, you explain and desist from being confrontational to your seniors by saying outright no.

How prevalent is political interference in public corporations?

It is there and it is very big. But we now have new cadres and politicians who are corning to learn that if interference is put in newspapers or if the public gets to know it, it does not augur well for the politician and the manager.

In the book, you are so positive about the role of donors and government success public enterprises. (These have equally contributed to the failure to many public corporations)

Yes and no. We have  instances where government has through interference contributed to the problems some companies have had, we also have cases of companies which have had we also have cases of companies which have closed because donors wanted them privatised and in the process government got people who did not have experience or people who didn't want to serve the interests of the people and in the process ran them down.

But at the same time there are many situations where government [intervention] has been helpful. URA used to have a problem but government and donors supported it, gave it autonomy and shielded it from interference and it is now one of the shinning institutions. So, government or donor interference and support depends on the commitment they see at the managerial level. If they sense that the man- ager is unable to do the work, then of course it's their role to intervene.

You have heard instances where government has intervened and dismissed the whole board and management. You saw what happened with NSSF Government must come in to save the situation because if they don't and things go wrong, they will be blamed.

You are opposed to privatisation especially of the National Water and Sewerage Corporation yet if privatised, it will give the public a stake in the enterprise.

You are right. I am opposed to privatisation for title sake of privatization. I am for what works. At National Water, we privatised our collections for five years land involved an international operator to clean up our collections, billing and manage our commercial business. We worked with the private sector but we knew in the end that we are the ones to do it.

Whenever you talk about privatisation you should ask yourself, do you want to learn from it or you want somebody to take over your problems? There is no way you are going to privatise your problems, there is nobody on this earth who is willing to take over your problems.

So, if you are thinking of privatisation, you better fatten the cow, make sure that it produces milk, then you will attract people to come in. We are, however moving towards that [privatisation]. We have tried to make our managers own or take part on the bonuses or profits that we make. Our managers bid to run our towns.

As we move towards making National Water profitable, we are even thinking of going to the market. The first thing we wanted to do was floating a bond to allow our nationals to put money in the company, but we hit a deadlock. We were unable to guarantee that once people give us their money, water prices will not be affected in a bid to get profits and interest on money they give us. We are moving towards further performance improvements and we think that once we have invested in all the facilities and have become self sustaining, we should be able in the next five or ten years to float shares to the public.

Doesn't bidding by your managers to run towns create conflict of interest?

No, no. We are transparent. We work out what is required in an area and set performance indicators to be met. When we tendered recently, we got so many bids from the public but unfortunately only one or two went through because the majority hadn't understood what the water business is about. We must be careful not to experiment because our service is so crucial. I. for instance, cannot tell people that for a few months in Kampala there will not be water because the new management is trying out to adjust [to a new contractor].

In the book you talk about the need of winning the goodwill of the publics. Isn't there a stage where companies cannot regain that goodwill?

Yes, you are right. Goodwill is not permanent. Even when you have got the goodwill, it is very easy to lose it; any company, whether private or public, can rebuild it. NSSF as you see it, if it had a transparent, committed [management] and the autonomy to do whatever they are supposed to do, within no time, they can build that goodwill.

Some time back people used to look at URA as a den of thieves, but now they have suddenly built goodwill. Nobody can say that they have given up on NSSR Once you get a good manager who looks at the environment, the customer and studies what the stakeholders want, within no time, we will see NSSF as the darling of the people.

There are calls for NSSF privatization?

The fragmentation, unbundling may not help, as you have seen what has happened with electricity, they have unbundled the company into six companies and in the end nobody knows who is responsible for what. You can see the pain that customers have gone through because of this unbundling.

You also write about how good handling of customers contributes to the success of public corporations. How do you assess the performance of Ugandans in this aspect? Ugandans are now learning to handle customers. Look at private companies like MTN, UTL, WARID, URA, UMEME; "they are sensitizing their customers, they are trying to put the customer at the forefront of their business.

When you go to the market in Kikuubo, people call you not because they love you but because they love your money. Even public enterprises like UBC and New Vision are competing with sister private companies because they have realised that they have a readership and listenership to protect.  Even politicians, unlike in the past, are now talking about the voters and these are their clients.

You have led National Water and Sewerage Corporation for 12 years, when are you retiring?

I am a manager by profession. I don't mind where I manage. If I am given a problem to solve, I will do it. If the feeling is that the job at National Water is done and I am moved to another place, I will move because we managers, like politicians we are not statistic.

I have a renewable contract and the appointing authority renews it as and when he feels they should renew it and of course taking into account my individual needs.

When is your current contract expiring?

It will end when it ends. When they gave it to me, I didn't put it in the press to tell people that I have a contract. But as soon as the time is ripe for us to wind up, there are very good people who can manage the institution.

Last word?

I thank our customers. Their willingness to pay has improved we collect about 95% of our bills which is one of the highest in the region and in the world.

I also thank the press. They have been on our side both critically and in a supportive way which has helped us.

I also thank my staff- the people who were behind the kitchen cooking. They understood my intolerance to corruption, non-commitment to work, poor handling of customers and my tolerance to transparency and strong discipline.