| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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The Utility Assistance Programme has proven to be quite innovative and creative in the solutions extended to utility customers throughout the country. The Programme is a ground-breaking programme and has been ingeniously designed to fulfil the Ministry’s mandate by improving access to utilities by citizens with specific attention being paid to low-income persons within the society.
Given that there are households living in remote areas that are unable to access the electricity, the Solar Panel Assistance component uses renewable energy as a means of providing this off-grid electricity to remote areas. In some cases, the electrical infrastructure could not have been installed due to the locations or in some cases the cost-benefit analysis for installing this infrastructure proved it to be unfeasible. The Solar panel therefore uses an environmentally friendly and cost effective method for providing electricity to these communities.
As it pertains to the beneficiaries of the water tank facility, many of these households are living on state lands without the legal requirements for accessing a pipe borne water supply. These communities were also most at risks for water related disease and other health and sanitation issues. This strategy has therefore allowed the Ministry to provide safe water storage to low income households regardless of land tenure. The Bill Assistance component of the programme is implemented through collaboration with the utility agencies with advice and verification by the social services arm of Government. This ensures that the benefit is applied directly to the utility bills of qualified customers. These programme is closely monitored to ensure compliance as a means of reducing abuse.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The Utilities Assistance Programme is implemented by the Customer Service Unit of the Ministry of Public Utilities. The Ministry is charged with the responsibility for the effective and efficient leadership and governance of the delivery of Public Utilities Services to the citizenry of Trinidad and Tobago. As such, the Ministry ensures that Trinidad and Tobago's utility sector which includes water, sewerage, electricity, post and telecommunications is modern, customer oriented and technologically enabled to provide effective, cost efficient quality services to all citizens. The Ministry also ensures that the agencies under its purview practice prudent financial management. The Ministry is dedicated to its vision to achieve excellence in the delivery of Public Utilities for the sustainability of the country and improving the quality of life of citizens. The Ministry has realised that facilitating the effective delivery of efficient, affordable and quality Public Utilities Services must be undertaken in close collaboration with all stakeholders.
With this in mind the Ministry understands that its effectiveness as a Ministry depends on the ability of all citizens to access these services. As at February 2017, the Ministry has provided assistance through the Utilities Assistance Programme to 13,721 households or approximately 45,709 beneficiaries.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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In order to implement the Utilities Assistance Programme, the Ministry established a Committee to assess any similar programmes provided, undertake research on the current situation and to scope the intended beneficiary population, evaluate the recommendations made by the Regulated Industries Commission and put forward recommendations for the Programme’s implementation. In the course of the Committee’s exercise, the team met with various stakeholders including the Utility Regulator, Water and Electricity utility agencies and the Social Services. Once the proposal was developed this was presented to all stakeholders for comments and ratification. Following the approval of the Programme Policy by Government, an Action Plan was developed and shared with the two Utility agencies which included timelines for meeting particular implementation milestones.
The Ministry also ensured that a source of funding was established through the Ministry of Finance. The Programme is finance under the Ministry’s Recurrent Expenditure which is financed by the Government’s Consolidated Fund.
At the time of implementation of the Utilities Assistance Programme, a Technical Advisory Committee was also established which is responsible for ensuring that all approvals for assistance under the programme are in keeping with the Programme policy. The Committee is comprised of a cross-section of technical and administrative officers within the Ministry and is headed by the Permanent Secretary. It provides programme oversight and ensures adherence to policy. Reports are provided on programme achievements and challenges to implementation. This committee also has responsibility for identifying priority and extenuating circumstances applicable to applications for granting approvals for assistance under the UAP; approving the selection of suppliers of goods and services under the UAP’s Water Tank and Solar Panel Assistance; identifying the need for policy and programme changes to the UAP for recommendation to the Cabinet; and ensuring that the necessary monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are implemented for the UAP. This committee has ensured that a revised Programme policy was submitted for approval by Government when necessary and that the required Programme status reports are submitted.
The Ministry has built in monthly, quarterly and annual reporting within the Utilities Assistance Programme. Reports are submitted on a monthly basis to the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of the Ministry of Public Utilities for evaluation. This evaluation is submitted to the Permanent Secretary who is the Ministry’s Accounting Officer and to the Ministry of Public Utilities. It should be noted that an annual programme evaluation is undertaken which identifies the Programmes, achievements against its annual objectives and takes into consideration programme challenges. Recommendations are made for addressing any challenges or amending programme strategies a s a means of improving programme delivery.
Quarterly Reports on the Programme are also submitted to external bodies such as the Ministry of Planning and Development and the Ministry of Social Development who submit reports to the Cabinet and the Parliament on the operations of the Programme.
The implementation of the programme also built in a Public Education deliverable which sought to share information with the intended applicants on the programme benefits, means of access and requirements for approval. This public education campaign included Advertisements using various media such as radio, television and newspaper, Public Outreach Campaigns throughout various communities in Trinidad and Tobago; Constituency Sensitisation Training initiative which sought to provide detailed information on the various utility assistance programmes offered by the Ministry to assist such these offices to better serving their constituents; Partnership with other Government Ministries and agencies such as the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services and Ministry of Community Development.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The key stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of the Utilities Assistance Programme included firstly a cross sectional team of technical professionals within the Ministry of Public Utilities. This team was responsible for undertaking research on the current issues which affected the low income customers within the utility sector. This involved meetings with the utility regulator to get a better understanding of the expected effect that the increased utility would have on particular customers.
The committee also researched and identified the intended beneficiary population in conjunction with the Social Services Ministry and made recommendations to the Minister of Public Utilities for its implementation.
The Utility agencies for electricity and water were also key stakeholders in the process as they were engaged to better understand the extent to which they could implement the subsidy application, the barriers to implementations and to identfiy whether any changes needed to be made to either the Ministry’s operating procedures or that of these agencies.
In its implementation the Ministry have also engaged and made modifications to the Programme based on recommendations made by civil service and interest groups such as the Blind Welfare Association and the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Retired People. Whenever changes are made to the Programme these have always been communicated to a wide cross- section of stakeholders to ensure information is shared in a timely manner.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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With the implementation of the Utilities Assistance Programme (UAP) by the Ministry of Public Utilities, clear deliverables could be seen by the inclusion of a social protection programme catering to the poor and vulnerable. From a macro perspective, it must be noted that within recent times, the economy experienced a major shortfall in oil prices which resulted in an increase in consumer deliverables such as electricity and water. To promote economic and sustainable development, reduction in poverty is seen as one of the main SDG 2015 deliverable.
Consequently, the Ministry’s ability to provide yearly a reliable source of electricity, water storage and bill assistance for successful applicants of the programme, signifies its increasing success. The implementation of the UAP delivery system in particular the Solar Panel component, saw the improvement in the lives of beneficiaries by allowing a safer environment and critical household tasks to be conducted, proper storage of food and medication as well as improvement in educational performance of persons living in remote communities, forested and hilly locations.
Further, the Ministry’s ability to provide many low income utility customers with monthly bill assistance demonstrates success as it provides a means of cushioning the effects of the rising cost of living. This programme provided a means of enhancing the real and predominantly fixed income of beneficiaries resulting in a shift in disposable income to more critical areas such as the purchasing of food and medication. In addition, by facilitating the continued supply of water and electricity to programme beneficiaries, these vulnerable persons are no more at risk of losing access to these basic utility services. Such persons were previously subject to numerous and repeated disconnection of utility services due to their inability to pay.
The provision of proper water storage facility to low income persons also contributed to minimizing health and safety issues as beneficiaries and communities targeted were most at risks for water related disease and other health and sanitation issues. The outputs of the programme increased the welfare of the recipients’ ability to lead normal lives, where hardship would have otherwise been experienced and it therefore stands to reason that the programme itself was effective having meet its objectives.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The implementation of the Utilities Assistance Programmes has faced a number of challenges. These challenges include but are not limited to manpower and staffing issues, administrative challenges and issues with reaching its target population.
One administrative challenge faced was that of inadequate staffing to administer the various components of the programme. The Unit responsible for programme delivery is also charged with the responsibility of varied other functions within the Ministry. Despite the various changes and expansions made to the programme between 2010 to 2013 which included the addition of new categories of beneficiaries and new components there was very little manpower added to undertake duties related to the programme. This is despite the expanded Utilities Assistant Programme, requiring additional tasks such as those related verification of applicants, site visits, procurement processes, contract management and project implementation. The Ministry in recent time has sought to add additional Personnel inclusive of a Project Officer, Senior Administrative Officer and have also re-engineered a number of tasks throughout the Unit to ensure that programme related duties are properly assigned.
A key challenge faced by the programme is the inability of some low income persons to meet some of the programme criteria as it does not always facilitate the provision of assistance to some of the needy households. One such obstacle is persons exceeding the electricity consumption level of 600 kwh per month, despite needing the assistance. Another obstacle observed would be the situations where persons are unable to access the water tank facility because they have a pipe borne water connection. The programme criteria reserves this facility for persons who do have a pipe-bone water supply and as such these people do not qualify for the water tank assistance despite being in a situation of suffering from unreliable supply of water. Conversely, there are also situations where persons may be without a water supply but are already in possession of a small water tank. The programme’s policy needs to be revised to take into consideration situations where the size of the family water storage is insufficient for their daily needs. In such cases the provision of a tank would have alleviated the circumstances. In order to address these challenges, a Root-Cause Analysis was undertaken and proposals developed to address specific challenges. These proposals are currently being evaluated with the intention to modify the Programme policy for implementation.
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