Abstract

Effectiveness of public utility regulatory institutions world over has come under attack by analysts. Some believe that public utility regulatory institutions are a government machinery to nip in the bud any views by the opposition in how the government regulates public services. Contrary to this belief, public utility regulatory institutions are affected with public interest to see to it that public services are equally and equitably provided to the general public without favouritism or discrimination. In Malawi, Public utility regulatory institutions are new institutions that have been established by Government after democracy. This study therefore looks at whether the said institutions have been effective or not. However, the term ‘effectiveness’ has different connotations and can refer to, among other meanings, the following elements which when added together make a public utility regulatory institution achieve its aim, viz; political will, flexibility, growth of the regulated sector, ability to level the playing field among different stakeholders in the sector, simplicity and predictability. It is worth mentioning at the outset that this study looks at the term effectiveness in terms of growth of the regulated sector. This growth will be looked at, among others, from the perspective of set targets that the Government proposed to be achieved through its Communications Sector Policy Statement of 1998. The study looked at a number of research methods to achieve its aim. Suffice to say that, apart from the literature review that was used to decode effectiveness of public utility regulatory institutions, primary and secondary research was conducted. Data was collected through a questionnaire that comprised both open ended and close-ended questions. Findings to the qualitative results were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) for Windows. Responses to open-ended questions were analyzed using content analysis. The study has at the end shown that Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has been effective in regulating communications as a public utility in Malawi because there has been a significant growth of the sector since it started regulating the sector in line with the Communications Sector Policy Statement of 1998. Although MACRA has made a significant impact in the way it regulates the communications sector, it has faced a number of challenges ranging from lack of independence, lack of security of tenure of its employees and presence of illegal operators in the sector. Recommendations were therefore made to iron out such challenges and some of them are to the effect that MACRA should be independent by reporting to Parliament instead of its line Ministry, MACRA should be transparent in the way it regulates the sector and that it should also have ability to maintain human capital.

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School	: School of Law, Economics and Government
Issued Date	: 2008

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