The city council as well as the municipal and county councils interact daily with local communities who mill around their offices looking for permits and licences as well as paying various rates and rents.
If indeed the key criterion for rating public institutions is service delivery, then all the local authorities need to do is improve those linkages with the citizens and everybody will be singing in their praise.
One (or is it the only) way of doing so is using modern technologies such as the internet and mobile phone short message service (SMS). All over the world, local governments are using websites to reduce red tape.
Initially, the users may not have the skills to access these services through computers. They may not even afford computers or the cost of connectivity. But when the services are computerised, the staff can at least retrieve and process them faster than when the same information is stored in heaps of tired, dusty files.
By calling for automation of services, I do not in any way imply mere technological sophistication. If anything, the provision of electronic or e-government services ought to be a well thought-out process. It is a process that must change the working environment, cut costs and, above all, result in general efficiency across the board.
In developing these online services, great efforts will have to go into the integration of back-office systems. Similar services must be grouped together in a database and subsequently made available in one-stop centre. Currently, local authority services scatter across buildings and offices. This is not citizen-friendly. The Government has made commendable efforts to reduce the number of licences needed to start business. But getting some of these services still needs one to visit several offices across the town.
I recently met a friend who had been sent from Nairobi’s Nyayo House to Kenya Revenue Authority’s Times Tower for a Sh10 revenue stamp. Naturally, he was not amused, and wondered: “Why can’t these people sell the stamps on behalf of KRA?” Most likely, the man spent some time in the city’s traffic jam. A precious day was getting wasted in processes that were not helpful.
We need to look at services from the citizen’s point of view. When one goes to pay the water bill, it is very likely that one will like to also pay those of electricity and telephone. To their credit, a number of organisations have outsourced payments of utility services to old post office.
The organisation which has seen revenue drop because customers abandoned traditional letter writing for e-mail, is reinventing itself as a one-stop shop for public services.
The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh offers a wide range of services through the award-winning technology project, eSeva, (www.eSevaonline.com), which serves the city of Hyderabad and its environs using 46 centres with more than 400 counters. The citizens do not have to queue for each service separately. Once they get to a service point, they sort out all their utility bills (water, electricity, telephone, property tax), certificates (birth, death, caste), permits, trade licences and even motor vehicle registration.
Locally, we are beginning to see the Government use web-based applications as alternative service channels to better public services. The Public Service Commission, which was also ranked poorly in the performance evaluation, uses the internet for recruitment.
It is possible to apply for a job and check for interview dates using their website, www.publicservice.go.ke. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) that also fared badly, at least allows the use of smart cards at its parks. Tourists need not wait at the entry points; they just swipe and go.
The first step on the e-way is to provide a simple catalogue of information. Thereafter, two-way communication, where people can ask for services and get some response, should be built to allow people to download forms and fill them at home. But the ideal step would be to integrate the services and allow people to fully transact them by filling and sending everything online.
There will of course be the usual challenges of lack of funds and technological expertise. If well implemented, the long-time gains outweigh the pain.
Using technology for service delivery is crucial. More than anything else, public service institutions should be evaluated on their ability to use technology in service delivery.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Andrew Limo
Quelle/Source: Daily Nation, 24.05.2008
