Processes, Information, and Accounting Gaps in the Regulation of Argentina's Private Railways
Almost a decade after Argentina began privatizing its railways, resolution of conflicts between regulators, users, and operators continues to take longer, and to be more difficult, than expected. The authors contend that many of these conflicts aro...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/07/1551998/processes-information-accounting-gaps-regulation-argentinas-private-railways http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19579 |
| Summary: | Almost a decade after Argentina began
privatizing its railways, resolution of conflicts between
regulators, users, and operators continues to take longer,
and to be more difficult, than expected. The authors contend
that many of these conflicts arose because there are no
rules for interactions between the key stakeholders:
government, regulators, users, unions, and the media. One
result of inexperience in setting up concession agreement
has been that the agreements did not clearly define the
information needed for oversight and regulation. Argentine
rail concession contracts were supposed to be specific about
the way tariffs, quality, investment, exclusivity, and so
on, would change over time. And the newly created regulatory
bodies were given some discretion about adjusting the
contracts in the face of unforeseen developments. However,
initial privatization were carried out in such a way that
there was no time to refine terms, so many loopholes
remained. Those unforeseen events have happened, and the
regulatory agency, the National Commission for Transport
Regulation (CNRT), has had to adapt its procedures and
decisions to available information. In some cases, alleged
modifications of the operating environment have led to
renegotiations. Changes have been introduced in the approach
to furnishing information to the government for oversight
and regulatory accounting. The changes center on clearer
definitions in connection with four major issues: a) The
measurement of efficiency; b) access prices; and c) the
financial model. Circumstances in the Argentine rail
industry early in 2001 did not favor dramatic changes, but
current renegotiations could be used to adjust information
requirements to reflect what has been learned through six
years of experience. |
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