Committees for the Development and Social Control of Public Utilities
The Committees for the Development and Social Control of Public Utilities are bodies set up at the initiative of the subscribers and / or users of the respective public services, with mayors being responsible for procuring their creation. Municipal authorities and utility companies have an obligation to recognize such committees and to provide training and advice to members in the functions they must perform. Among the functions assigned to the Committees are to propose plans and programs for the improvement of the provision of such services; to agree among companies and the community to obtain from the latter contribution the expansion or improvement of services; to request modifications to the stratification system; and to examine and analyze the criteria, mechanisms, and amounts of subsidies that are given to low-income users. The origin of these Committees dates back to the municipal reform of 1986, which established the participation of users in the Boards of Public Utility Companies. The rule was regulated in 1987 and then the Political Constitution of 1991 introduced new elements in this respect of the provision of public services domiciles, which led to the establishment of the Committees for Development and Social Control of Public Utilities between 1991 and 1994. In the 2000s, additional modifications were made to these Committees.
Institutional design
Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?
Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?
Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?
Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?
Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?
Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?
- Formalization
- embedded in the constitution/legislation
- Frequency
- regular
- Mode of selection of participants
- open
- Type of participants
- citizens
- Decisiveness
- democratic innovation yields no decision
- Co-Governance
- yes
Means
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Ends
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