Driving Performance at Peru’s Water and Sanitation Services Regulator

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public services. Their organisational culture, behaviour and governance are important factors in how regulators, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) looks at the institutions, processes and practices that can create an organisational culture of performance and results. The report uses PAFER to assess elements linked to both the internal and external governance of Peru’s Water and Sanitation Services Regulator (Superintendencia Nacional de Servicios de Saneamiento, Sunass). The review acknowledges the technical expertise of Sunass within the institutional framework, analyses the key drivers of its performance, and identifies a number of opportunities to help the regulator prepare for the future, including in the context of sector-wide challenges and the COVID-19 crisis.

Published on February 17, 2022Also available in: Spanish

In series:The Governance of Regulatorsview more titles

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Foreword	Read PDF
Abbreviations and acronyms	Read PDF
Executive summary	Read PDF
Assessment and recommendations	Read PDF
Regulatory and sector context	Read PDF
Governance of Sunass	Read PDF
Methodology	Read PDF

key messages

Since its creation in 1992, Sunass is Peru’s independent economic regulator for drinking water, sewerage treatment and sanitary disposal of excreta. The attribution of new functions and an expansion of the scope of the regulator’s remit to cover small towns and rural areas in 2016 attest to its sound reputation but also introduce important challenges.
In a context of reduced resources, Sunass will have to realistically assess what can be achieved and engage with stakeholders on risks and expectations linked to its new responsibilities. The regulator may need to review the delivery of functions to prioritise essential activities.
To improve sector performance, Sunass should ensure it can draw on a fit-for-purpose regulatory toolbox that incentivises behaviour change and matches the needs and characteristics of the sector. This will include increasing the added value of stakeholder engagement and making full use of the regulator’s benchmarking data.
To support the consistency of the regulator’s actions, it will be important for Sunass to consolidate its institutional transformation by updating its organisational identity and culture and increasing the level of interaction among staff members across headquarters and the decentralised offices that it has established since 2017.
The urgent task of improving sector performance also needs to rely on regular high-level sector co-ordination meetings among public authorities in the sector and the identification of joined-up approaches and data sharing. Sunass could advocate for the instatement of such opportunities and mechanisms.

Contact

For further information, please contact Anna Pietikainen, OECD Regulatory Policy Division.

Peru

Driving Performance at Peru’s Water and Sanitation Services Regulator

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