LYSA intervenes in medium-sized towns of developing countries in the framework of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) which call upon its rigorous management and corporate energy to achieve international standards of quality of service and sustainable operational profitability. LYSA can take action in the framework of public service delegation management processes such as leasing contracts or management contracts, and its remuneration is directly linked with the operational result of the public service.
Long-term, fixed-duration entrepreneurial contracts, PPPs follow a policy defined by the public sector and LYSA can step in as a management delegatee, under a leasing form, creating a private company, its subsidiary, or in the context of a management contract of the public utility. In any case, with LYSA, public service management becomes a laboratory for all stakeholders, under the form of a management teaching workshop. At the end of its contract, LYSA will hand back an autonomous and sustainable public service company to the authorities.
The principle of efficiency
PPPs create an operational synergy between the public and private sectors which is governed by a very simple principle of efficiency: the remuneration of the operating firm is directly linked to the operational result of the public service it delivers.
One example of this is in Colombia, in Palmira (350,000 inhabitants) LYSA's subsidiary ACUAVIVA, who, from the tenth year of a PPP lasting 15 years, obtained the best management indicators in the country. Another example is in Haiti, the first PPP in the country in water and sanitation, the Water Company of Saint-Marc (SESAM) (130,000 inhabitants) has obtained unequalled quality of service levels in only its third year of operation.
Learning about the demands of a quality service together
Working within the framework of a PPP, LYSA involves the people concerned in building a management framework from the outset. This makes it possible to meet the demands of a quality service.
This result-based culture, which is driven by the progressive improvement in the service provided to users, with its corollary, the fair invoicing of its cost, develops between on the one hand, the role of the public sector in the definition of objectives and the control of their achievement, and on the other hand, the obligation to produce results that the private company is subject to.
The information symmetry between the players helps ensure they are able to overcome any unforeseen circumstances and difficulties, in total transparency, so that an alliance of the responsible parties makes it possible for problems to be analysed together and then be resolved together.
LYSA helps to build local know-how by combining its techniques and experience with local experience. In a permanent process of improvement aimed at achieving greater efficiency, with its partners, active participants, it runs "a school of management".
A "win-win" contractual framework.
PPPs are based on a contractual framework which sets out responsibilities, marks progress and penalizes shortcomings. It nevertheless includes a necessary adaptation to reality, as it allows for positive changes in a complex system involving many participants in an often uncertain environment, without losing sight of the main objective. This focus on the higher goals of quality of service, equity and the common good, is for LYSA, a guarantee of a "win-win" PPP for all parties, because its governance prioritizes solidarity in management over the maximization of profit. The "participative" nature of the PPPs in which LYSA is engaged, mobilizing all the players, from local communities right up to national administrations, gives rise to transparent, shared management and encourages creativity: methods of management, geographical cover, pricing, tariffs, taxes, transfers (TTT)… and realism!
With LYSA, make trust an integral part of development!
LYSA’s approach seeks to break with fatalism and lead to positive change, not only in public service companies’ staff during their daily work, but also in users with respect to their perception of service. All those involved, from the most modest to the highest Administration, will be invited to actively get involved in the process and bring their experience to overcome any obstacles, and remove uncertainty together.
In this way, with the mobilization of all the players, their public drinking water and sanitation service will meet the challenges of quality standards, cost of service, equity and profitability.