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Public Service Delivery System: Practice In Prospective

- Ganga Prashad Gyawali

Introduction:
The delivery of services is a set of institutional arrangements adopted by the
government to provide public goods and services to its citizens. Therefore, it is the
specific institutional arrangements that critically influence the performance of public
service delivery.
A responsive government has to take the accountability and must be capable to
manage efficient delivery of basic services. It falls under the managerial as well as
ethical dimension of good Governance. Democratic governments exist to serve their
citizens. People today expect to be valued as customers even by the government.
Social efficiency is solely dependent on efficient and effective service delivery by
government. It is both instrumental as well as behavioral basis to establish
exploitation free society. Service effectiveness appraises the overall functioning of
government. It is the testimony of equity and distributive justice.
Citizens are the most important subject in democratic governance and public service
delivery is the basis for establishing responsive linkage of government with citizens.
In the context of public service delivery, citizens are assumed as customers by the
system with the following basic assumptions.

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 • Customers are the most important subject in government business.
• Customers are not dependent on government. Government is dependent on
them.
• Customers are not liability. They are the intangible but valuable assets for
government.
• Doing the government of favour when they come to ask for service.
Government is not doing them a favour by serving them.
• Customers are not just a statistic. They are flesh and blood human beings
with feelings and emotions.
• Customers come to government with their needs and wants. It is the job to
fill them.
• Customers deserve the most courteous and attentive treatment the
government can provide them.
• Customers are lifeblood of public service delivery without which the doors
will be closed forever.

The Principles of Public Service Delivery

A fresh approach is needed: approaches which puts pressure on system, procedure,

attitude and behavior within the public services and reorient them in the customers
favour. This does not mean introduction of more rules and centralized processes or
micro-managing service delivery activities. The framework consists of seven simple
principles are aligned with Democracy and Accountability:-
1. Consultation users and consumers of public services should be consulted about
the level and quality of the services they receive and wherever possible, to be
given a choice about services that are offered. There are many ways to consult
users of services, including consumer surveys, interviews with individual
users, consultation groups, and meetings with consumer reprehensive bodies
and community groups.

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2. Service standards users and consumers of public service should be treated with
courtesy and consideration. Service standards will be approved by the minister
or relevant department, who is ultimately responsible for the services being
provided. The service standards should be demanding but realistic. This means
that they should reflect a level of service which is higher than that currently
offered but which can be achieved with dedicated effort, and by adopting more
efficient and customer-focused working practices. Service standards must then
be published and displayed at the point of delivery and communicated as
widely as possible to all potential users so that they know what level of service
they are entitled to expect, and can complain if they do not receive it.
3. Information must be provided which meet the varying needs of different users.
This is essential to ensure that those who are disadvantaged by physical
disability, language barriers, and geographical distance or in any other way are
included. Where customers have little or no choice about the services they
receive, information is one of the most powerful tools-sometimes the only
tool-that they have to exercise their rights to good service openness and
transparency are the hallmarks of democratic government and are fundamental
to the public service transformation process. In terms of public service
delivery, their importance lies in the need to build confidence. The users and
consumers of public services should expect full, accurate information about
the service they are entitled to receive.
4 Openness and transparency the public should expect to be told how the public
sector departments and agencies are run, how much they cost, and who is in
charge. Improving public service delivery can only be achieved within the
resources available to the nation. The service delivery programme must go
forward in the context of a transformation programme that is also aimed at
reducing public expenditure and creating a leaner public service.

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5. Courtesy users and consumers of public services should be treated with
courtesy and consideration. Under the principles of public service delivery the
concept of courtesy goes much wider than asking public servants to give a
polite simple and saying 'Please' and 'thank you', though these are certainly
required. The principles of public service delivery require that the behavior of
all public servants' is raised to the level of the best.
Service delivery and customer care must be included in public service training
programmers and formal training given to all those who deal directly with the
public.

6. Responsiveness users and consumers of Public service should expect that when
the promised standard of service is not delivered, they will be offered an
apology, a full explanation and a speedy and effective remedy and that any
complaint will produce a sympathetic, positive response. Responsiveness is a
core value of the transformed public service. Its application in practice will
have a profound effect on the way. The capacity and willingness to take action
when things go wrong are the necessary counter parts of the standard setting
process. The key to implementing the responsiveness principle lies in being
able to identify quickly and accurately when services are falling below the
promised standard and having procedures in place to remedy the situation.
This needs to be done at the individual level in transactions customers, and at
the organizational level, in relation to the entire service delivery programme.

7 Value for money the public should expect that public services will be provided
as economically and efficiently as possible. It is not only the public who would
like to see public services improve. Many dedicated public servants,
particularly those who serve the public directly, are frustrated by systems and
procedures which are often a barrier to good service rather than a support for
it. Performance appraisal will in future include an assessment of the
performance of individual staff in contributing to improving service to the
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 public. This will be particularly important in the case of staffs who serve the
public directly, where a key indicator will be how they rate in their dealings
with the public.
Service Delivery Improvement Plans should setout among other things:
™ Existing levels of service and the proposed service standards to be adopted.
™ How service standards will be monitored and reported on and the management
information systems which will support this.
™ The organizational and systems arrangements which will ensure standards are
met.
™ The human resource training, supervision and appraisal arrangements which
will ensure that staff behave in accordance with the principles of public
service delivery concern ministry.
™ How the departments communications systems will be geared up to provided
information about services of the type and frequency that customers require.
™ How complaints systems will be developed to identify and rectify failure to
deliver the promised standard to individual customers.
™ The financial management systems which will collect data on the unit costs of
key services, in order to provide information for standard and priority setting
in subsequent years.
Statement of Public Service Commitment
Statements of public service commitment should be short, simple and easy to
understand. Strenuous efforts should be made to ensure that all users and potential
users are aware of the statements, because it is an essential tool to enable them to
demand services in accordance with the principles of public service delivery to the
public. In widely spread rural areas, for example, the press, video, T.V. and local
community centers will be encouraged to public the statements and, where this will
assist communication, they should be published/communicated in local languages.
Central Government or related ministries are required to review and improve their
complaints systems, in line with the following principles:
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a. Accessibility: Complaints systems should be well-publicized and easy to use.
Excessive formality should be avoided. Systems which require complaints to be
made only in writing may be convenient for organization but can be off putting
to many customers and should therefore also be welcomed in other ways such as
personal face-to-face complaints or by telephone.
b. Speed: Customers will become more dissatisfied the longer it takes to respond
to their complaint. An immediate and genuine apology together with a full
explanation will often be all that they want. Where delay is unavoidable, the
customer should be kept informed of progress and told when on outcome can be
expected.
c. Fairness: Complaints should be fully and impartially investigated. Many
customers will be nervous of complaining to the manager of an office about one
of his or her own staff, or about some aspect of the system for which the
manager is responsible. Wherever possible, therefore, an independent avenue
should be offered for customers to use if they are dissatisfied with the response
they receive the first time round.
d. Confidentiality: Customers confidentiality should be protected, so that they are
not deterred from making complaints by felling that they will be treated less
sympathetically in future.
e. Effectiveness: The response to a complaint, however trivial, should take full
account of the customer's concerns and fallings. Where a mistake has been
made, or the service has fallen below the promised standard, the response should
be immediate, starting with an apology and a full explanation, an assurance that
the occurrence will not be repeated, and then whatever remedial action is
necessary. Wherever possible, staff who deal with the public direct should be
empowered to take action themselves to put things right.
f. Review: Complaints systems should incorporate mechanisms for review and for
feeding back suggestions for change to those who are responsible for providing
the service, so that mistakes and failures do not recur.
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 g. Training: Complaints handling procedures should be publicized throughout the
organization and training given to all staff so that they know what action to take
when a complaint is received.
Some Observations in Nepalese Case
The delivery of services is a set of institutional arrangements by the government to
provide public goods and services to its citizens; therefore, it is the specific
institutional arrangements that critically influence of public service delivery.
There are four basic broad forms of public service delivery arrangements that
governments every where have adopted:-
1. Direct Delivery of Service
The central government brings out legislation, enforces it, hire staff, invests, produces
and distributes services, either directly operating from the headquarters or through
denounce entreated line agencies, assumes full responsibility, and is accountable not
only for provisioning but also for delivering services.
Retaining power within itself, the government also adopts different sub-arrangements
for the actual delivery. Other than direct delivery of services such as public health
care, it creates public corporate enterprises and delegates to them the production and
delivery functions. The agriculture inputs corporation, which distributes form inputs,
and the Nepal food corporation which distributes subsidized food grains are examples.
2. Privatization of Service Delivery
Government transfers the delivery of public services to private companies. In this case
it assumes no responsibility except monitoring the company's compliance to legal
codes in many countries transportation and communication services are privatized.
The basic rational of privatization is to gain advantage of locative efficiency of the
market mechanism and meet resource gaps by mobilizing private sector investment in
the public services sector.

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3. Alternative Service Delivery Models
Public delivery 'alternative service delivery' models are relatively recent phenomena.
They are a marriage between the government and private sector with different
contractual arrangements. The most common alternative service delivery models are:

™ Contracting in/out services to the private sector for services such as

transporting food, operating dormitories.
™ Contracting out services to non government organizations (NGOs) such as for
literacy campaigns.
™ Franchising for example the postal service.
™ Licensing for information dissemination.
™ Partnership among local governments with regard to meeting the need for
large scale service production, and partnerships between the government and
local bodies for sharing complex technical capacities.
™ BOOT (Build-own-operative-transfer) and BOT (Build- operative-transfer)
systems such as for roads or subways.
™ Public-Private Partnership: This is the latest model for service delivery where
government and private sector/NGOs enter into co-operative agreements,
which include shared objective. In all such cases ultimate ownership is
generally vested with the government and it retains the power to provision
public services, where as private parties make the actual deliver.
4. Decentralization of Services: Local Government Bodies
Decentralization of service delivery is not a new concept in Nepal. Decentralization of
service delivery functions of local government bodies is the most popular mode in
most countries. Decentralization is based on subsidiary principles of governance, a
rule where provisioning, production and delivery of services are to be developed to
the lowest governmental tier, local bodies subject to economies of scale and capacity.
By virtue of being closest to the citizens local bodies are better positioned to match
supply of a given service to citizens' greater accountability for service quality.

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Conclusion
Public service delivery is a process that must involve every public servant, at every
public servant, at every level, in every department, whether they work behind the
scenes or directly with the public. Improving public service delivery is not a one-off
exercise. It is an on going and dynamic process, because as standards are met, they
must be gradually raised.
The Governance Reform program will help to make the countries will service and
public sector organizations more result oriented, more responsive to people's need's
and more gender balanced, dalits, indigenous tribes and ultra poor. It will develop the
Government's ability to lead the reform agenda, make the civil service more efficient,
reduce corruption and improve governance in the government, enhance the
competence and motivation of civil servants and establish processes for improving
performance in key ministries. Effective public service delivery demands strong and
citizen responsive government, capable and neutral administrative system, active civil
society, organized and capable consumer group and above all effective follow-up of
standards practices.

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References
⎯ UNDP-Government of Germany Evaluation of UNDP Role in Decentralization and local
Governance, working paper.
⎯ Pres Release, Nepal Development Forum.
⎯ Paul Samuel, 1992" Accountability in Public Services: exit, voice and Control"
World Development, Vol. 29, No.7: 1047-1060
⎯ "Evaluating Public Services: A Report card on Bangalore's Public Services"
Mimeo, Public Affairs Center, India, 1994.
⎯ Payne, Adrian,The Essence of Services Marketing," Prentice Hall of India Private
Limited, New Delhi-11000, 2001
"Public Service Delivery in Nepal: Challenges and Opportunities," A theme paper
presented in the seventh National Contention of Public Administration Association of
Nepal (PAAN)
⎯ National Planning Commission Secretariat, The tenth plan, Reports and publications
related to PSD system.
⎯ Various articles

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