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Strategies to improve service delivery in local authorities

Article · July 2013

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 International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management
29th July 2013. Vol.15 No.1
© 2012 JITBM & ARF. All rights reserved

ISSN 2304-0777 www.jitbm.com

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY

IN LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Charles Makanyeza1, Hardson P. Kwandayi2, Beatrice Nyaboke Ikobe3

1
Lecturer, Department of International Marketing, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe
2
Program Director, Faculty of Management and Administration, Africa University, Mutare, Zimbabwe
3
Lecturer, Government of Kenya - Teachers' Service Commission of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya

Corresponding email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

This study sought to identify the causes of poor service delivery and the strategies to improve
service delivery in local authorities using the case of Kajiado Local Authority. Two self-
administered questionnaires were designed i.e. one for the employees and the other for service
users so as to capture the views of both the employees and service users. Questionnaires were
conveniently distributed to 150 service users and 100 were returned usable. Questionnaires were
also conveniently distributed to 20 employees of Kijiado Local Authority and 20 were returned
usable. A mixed approach i.e. a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was taken
to analyse data. The findings showed that the major causes of poor service delivery are
councilor interference and political manipulation, corruption and lack of accountability and
transparency, inadequate citizen participation, poor human resource policy, failure to manage
change, lack of employee capacity, poor planning, and poor monitoring and evaluation. The
main strategies to improve service delivery were found to be increasing citizen participation in
the affairs of the local authority and partnership with the community in service delivery, flexible
response to service user complaints, offering value for money and ensuring that service users
pay their bills on time, strategic public service planning, sound human resource policy that
includes capacity building and employee motivation, managing change, dealing with corruption
and improving accountability, segregation of duties between councilors and management of the
local authorities, and partnering with other players and outsourcing services.

Key words: strategy, service delivery, public service delivery, town council, local authority

1. INTRODUCTION service such as collecting refuse and disposing it or

Municipal Research and Services Centre (MRSC, 1993) lighting the streets. Stauss (2005) supports this view and
defines service delivery as the actual producing of a suggests that in economic transactions, it is specialized
skills and knowledge that are exchanged for money
rather than the physical resources. Whitaker (1980)
observes that depending on the kind of service being

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 International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management
29th July 2013. Vol.15 No.1
© 2012 JITBM & ARF. All rights reserved

ISSN 2304-0777 www.jitbm.com

offered, each service has a primary intervention of of poor service delivery that needs to be addressed.
transforming the customer and that the client Similarly, the argument by Gwayi (2010) that
himself/herself is the principal beneficiary. municipalities in South Africa face serious challenges in
implementing service delivery options that will enhance
As a crucial responsibility of government and existing structures in the sphere of local government
government institutions, the public service should points towards the need for strategies to improve service
deliver services that a society requires to maintain and delivery. Thus, the problem of service delivery is not
improve its welfare. To do this, government institutions unique to Kenyan towns alone; it is a problem that is
require organizational structures and suitably qualified faced by many towns in the world, especially in Africa
people who must be supported to deliver the services and other developing countries. Humphreys (1998)
they are responsible for (Whitaker, 1980). Besley and alluded to the fact that, delivery of services has a direct
Ghatak (2007) argue that public services are a key and immediate effect on the quality of the lives of the
determinant of quality of life that is not measured in per people in a given community. Poor services can make it
capita income. The authors stress that service delivery is difficult to attract business or industry to an area and it
an important feature of the poverty reduction strategy. will also limit job opportunities for residents. Hence, as
Hernandez (2006) concurs that services are vital to Besley and Ghatak (2007) indicate, improving public
poverty alleviation and key to realizing the Millennium service delivery is one of the biggest challenges
Development Goals (MDGs) both directly and worldwide. To date, there are limited studies that have
indirectly, i.e. enhancing the availability and formally investigated the causes of poor service delivery
affordability of education, health, energy, and and the strategies that can be implemented to improve
information and communication technology services; the service delivery in local authorities. Although the
and alleviating poverty and empowering women Rwandese Association of Local Government
through entrepreneurial and employment creation Authorities (RALGA) in 2010 reported on the factors
opportunities in services enterprises respectively. affecting service delivery in local governments, it did
not empirically examine the strategies that can be
According to the Organisation for Economic Co- adopted to improve service delivery in local authorities.
operation and Development (OECD, 2010), throughout Therefore, this study sought to empirically identify the
the world cities face the most acute challenges of causes of poor service delivery and the strategies that
service delivery because of fast growing populations. In can be adopted to improve service delivery in local
many countries, developing countries in particular, the authorities using Kijiado town in Kenya as point of
issue of service delivery is a challenge that needs to be reference; taking into account the views of both service
addressed given the low quality of service provision and users and service providers (employees). The need to
the pressing needs of the poor (Besley and Ghatak, consider the views of the service providers is
2007). Khalid (2010) supports this view when he states substantiated by Tamrakar (2010) who argued that
that local councils in Malaysia continue face pressure to public services should be concerned with what the
improve their service delivery. The increased level of customers want rather than with what providers are
education of the population has led to a more vocal and prepared to give. The specific objectives were:
more discerning citizenry that expects better services  To establish the causes of poor service delivery in
and accountability from its local government. Moreover, local authorities.
rapid industrialization and urbanization of countries  To identify strategies for improving service
have created a challenging environment for the local delivery in local authorities.
government (Khalid, 2010). Tamrakar (2010) affirms
that in Nepal, public service delivery has remained Although this study is a case of Kijiado town in
lower than what was targeted when Nepal announced Kenya, the researchers believe that this research may
delivery of public services to its people through a also be insightful to other local authorities in terms of
planned development effort. The fact that people still understanding the practical causes of poor service
suffer from many hurdles when they have to get any delivery and the ways in which service delivery can be
government services (Tamrakar, 2020) is an indication improved by taking into consideration the views of both

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 International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management
29th July 2013. Vol.15 No.1
© 2012 JITBM & ARF. All rights reserved

ISSN 2304-0777 www.jitbm.com

service users and service providers. The services sector OECD (2010) indicates that services can be categorised
has gained a lot of importance in the world economy. in a number of ways including, the type of entity
Singh and Babrah (2009) emphasize that most providing them, the type of user and the nature of the
developing countries are earning millions from the services provided. The categories of services according
service sector alone. According to Ramseook- to OECD (2010) include private services, public
Munhurrun et al. (2010), public service providers are services and collective or joint services.
responsible and accountable to citizens or their
customers. Similarly, Hoogwout (2010) emphasizes According to OECD (2010), public services include
that, generally citizens are demanding increased all services provided by the government as well as all
convenience in their interaction with the government. services where the government has a significant
The interaction between citizens and the government is influence. OECD further states that public services can
through service delivery. Therefore, as Hoogwout be provided directly by the government or indirectly –
(2010) concludes, improving service delivery to where the government is not the direct provider but still
individual citizens raises trust in the government. plays a role in their provision through regulation or a
financial contribution. The most obvious public services
are those directly provided by some level of
2. LITERATURE REVIEW government, such as police protection or building
inspection. Humphreys (1998), concurs that public
2.1. Public Services services are those services which are mainly, or
Stauss (2005) argues that services are not physical completely, funded by taxation and that typically, public
resources but economic transactions exchanged for services would include the following areas of public
money, comprising of the exchange of specialized skills management: central and local government, the health,
and knowledge. He further insists that goods constitute authorities, education, defense, justice/home affairs and
tangible materializations of knowledge and activities, non-commercial semi-state organisations. OECD (2010)
and thus are nothing more than distributional observes that public services can also be provided by
mechanisms for services. Rao (2005) seems to be of the private firms, for example, solid waste collection and
same opinion when he defines services as intangible disposal, or by voluntary organisations, for example,
activities performed by machines or persons or both for community volunteers of a fire brigade. In such cases,
the purposes of creating value perceptions among while the government does not provide the service it is
customers. He further stresses that since services are involved in the process, perhaps by providing funds,
intangible activities, or benefits produced by the service establishing regulations or some other means. Examples
provider and in association with the consumer, their of this type of arrangement would include the
quality results in perception and value assessment by the contracting out of local government services, such as
consumer. Goldstein, Johnston, Duffy and Rao (2002) refuse collection and local transport, to private
state that the service concept is a frequently used term in companies, as well as the privatisation of certain central
the service design literature and that there are several government functions, such as the prison service.
definitions of the service concept. They define service
concept as the way in which an organization would like Public services have been presented with a view
to have its services perceived by its customers, that, under normal circumstances, public services
employees, shareholders and lenders, i.e. the providers do not operate for financial profit or require
organization’s business proposition. Edvardsson and immediate payment for goods or services prior to
Olsson (1996) refer to the service concept as the delivery. If public services are charged for, then they are
prototype for service and define it as the detailed not usually sold to customers at commercial prices set to
description of what is to be done for the customer, i.e. produce profits (Humphreys, 1998). In addition to their
what needs and wishes are to be satisfied, and how this primarily noncommercial character, public services are
is to be achieved. This involves understanding the needs often distinguished by an absolute, or at least
of customers in the target market and aligning this with comparative, lack of competition in the normal market
the organization’s strategy and competitive intentions. sense of seeking to entice customers away from their

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29th July 2013. Vol.15 No.1
© 2012 JITBM & ARF. All rights reserved

ISSN 2304-0777 www.jitbm.com

competitors or rival service providers. Indeed, public determined by inputs. This is evident given the fact that
services are often monopolistic or oligopolistic the role of formal contractual relationships is often quite
(Humphreys, 1998). limited or typically absent in public service delivery,
when compared to the market (Besley and Ghatak
2.2. Public Service Delivery 2007). These authors concluded that public service
Municipal Research and Services Centre (1993) delivery is based on four key issues:
defines service delivery as the actual producing of a  Public service provision is often mission-oriented
service such as collecting refuse and disposing it or and that the mission of the organization displaces
lighting the streets. Whitaker (1980) concurs with this the conventional notion of profit maximization used
argument and observes that depending on the kind of in the case of private sector organizations.
service being offered, each service has a primary  Accountability in public service delivery applies to
intervention of transforming the customer and that the the political, bureaucratic as well as market spheres.
client himself or herself is the principle beneficiary. It refers to the system of punishment and reward
Whether it is learning new ideas or new skills consequent on actions taken by agents, and to the
(education), acquiring healthier habits (health), or process of putting in place specific individuals to
changing one's outlook on family or society (social make decisions although it does not have to be
services), only the individual served can accomplish the governed by formal relationships.
change. He or she is a vital co-producer of any personal  Competition from private organizations can induce
transformation that occurs (Whitaker, 1980). The public organizations to get their act together to hold
service provider or agent can only use his or her skills on to funding and to their clientele.
and conduct activities to facilitate the process. Whitaker  Utilization of resources on the evaluation of
further insists that in delivering services, the agent helps policies is a crucial part of effective public service
the person being served to make the desired sorts of provision where missions are either too weak or not
changes by supplying encouragements, suggesting aligned and front line actors cannot be made
options, illustrating techniques, and providing guidance directly accountable by the beneficiaries (Besley
and advice; but the agent alone cannot bring about the and Ghatak, 2007).
change. Both the citizen and the agent together produce
the desired transformation (Whitaker, 1980). According to Tamrakar (2010), public services
should be concerned with what customers want rather
As a crucial responsibility of government and than what providers are prepared to give. Yet in most of
government institutions, the public service should the developing countries public service delivery is
deliver services that a society requires to maintain and characteristic of ineffective, cumbersome, too
improve its welfare. To do this, government institutions procedural, costly, red taped and not transparent
require organizational structures and suitably qualified systems. Tamrakar (2010) further argues that generally,
people who must be supported to deliver the services public servants have acted as masters without any sense
they are responsible for (Whitaker, 1980). Besley and of accountability and transparency instead of acting as
Ghatak (2007) argue that public services are delivered servants of people (Tamrakar, 2010). However, the
by a nexus of relationships between beneficiaries, citizens have become familiarized to the enhanced
politicians and service providers (such as bureaucrats, service delivery from the private sector and thus, they
doctors, and teachers). They insist that it is necessary to now view the public sector as another provider of
analyze the incentives that govern the behavior of services for which they pay taxes.
politicians and service providers, if services are to
match the best interest of the beneficiaries. The authors 2.3. Causes of Poor Service Delivery
further argue that the main concern in public service Aminuzzaman (2010) argues that although local
provision is how the obligations of the different parties authorities are the frontline local government
is defined and enforced. The same view is held by organization closest to people, the scope and quality of
Tamrakar (2010) who states that public service delivery service delivery is one of the most critical areas that
is characterized by compliance with rules and it is have significantly tinted their credibility and

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 International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management
29th July 2013. Vol.15 No.1
© 2012 JITBM & ARF. All rights reserved

ISSN 2304-0777 www.jitbm.com

institutional image. According to Gwayi (2010), some relationship between administration and elected
of the causes of poor service delivery in town councils representatives.
include: councilor interference in administration,
inadequate public participation; inadequate alignment of A similar study was conducted in UK by Sarshar
budget with the requirements of the central government; and Moores (2006) on improving service delivery in
lack of political and administrative leadership; facilities management. The major challenges that
inadequate infrastructure and shortages of skills. The hindered service delivery were identified as:
Department of Indigenous Affairs (DIA) of Western
Australia in 1999 also cited several impediments to  Lack of strategic awareness: Despite their being an
service delivery as: inadequate resources, land tenure important national plan of directives and processes,
and consequential non-rateability of land, a history of the study revealed that many staff at a supervisory
central government agencies circumventing local and practitioner level was unaware of the issues
authorities approvals and involvement, the substandard raised within it and the impact it should have been
nature of infrastructure, the limited powers of local having on their day-to-day operations.
authorities to enforce health and education services  Lack of capacity: The study assessment
control and management, exemption of some areas from demonstrated that many of the operational staff was
building controls and the polarized views of the parties. unaware of both national controls assurance
standards requirements and their respective
A study conducted by Aminuzzaman (2010) in responsibilities. The underlying cause of the
Bangladesh revealed that some of the critical awareness deficit was found to be a lack of training,
institutional challenges facing service delivery at the or specific systems to involve staff, at this level in
level of local authorities include limited manpower and the organisation. As a result, the staff ware
resources. Considering the work load and performing its roles without essential training and
responsibilities, local authorities are understaffed. The therefore exposing themselves and their customers
author further clarifies that local authorities also lack to potential risk.
logistic supports like computers and transport and that  Poor performance monitoring: Another issue
they also lack managerial capability and resources to applicable to all services was performance
design and run innovative service delivery in areas like monitoring, because although each of the services
employment generation, health and education. had monitoring systems in place, there was an
Aminuzzaman (2010) further found out that there is a overall lack of consistency and integration between
problem of lack of coordination between local the various systems in place.
authorities and extension service delivery workers of the  Poor coordination processes: Although each of the
government at the field level. The author noted that services had its own capable processes for
there are no formal links even between the standing determining service requirements, planning
committees of the local authorities with the extension delivery and managing suppliers, the Directorate's
workers of the corresponding line ministries of the co-ordination was still based on informal
government. Such isolation makes lots of the services of mechanisms, including face to face communication
local authorities dysfunctional and ineffective. This also and meetings, and the different service groups
deprives the local authorites of getting technical lacked clear and enforceable performance
assistance and other professional support from the standards. This led to long standing disagreements
government line agencies. Other challenges noted in between some of the service delivery teams which
Aminuzzaman’s (2010) study were: lack of appropriate led to reducing the quality of service. High staff
rules and regulation, ineffective monitoring, lack of turnover: It was also noted that there was a high
accountability and transparency, political manipulation, turnover of operational staff and inadequate level of
non-cooperation from central-government based management resource which in turn affected
bureaucracy, limited community understanding, service delivery.
exclusion of women, limited and insecure revenue base,
highly centralized project and programme design, poor

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© 2012 JITBM & ARF. All rights reserved

ISSN 2304-0777 www.jitbm.com

2.4. Strategies to Improve Service Delivery adopted by African governments to enhance public
In today’s global competitive environment, the sector performance. These strategies that touch on key
service industry plays an increasingly important role in requirements for improving the public sector in general
the economy of many countries, therefore, delivering and service delivery in particular, are based on the
quality service is considered as an essential strategy for concept of a ‘lean’ government. This means a
success and survival (Parasuraman et al., 1985). government that is run in partnership with all
Improving service delivery is primarily about improving stakeholders, and one that focuses on promoting the
the effectiveness and efficiency of the way in which advancement of the private sector and citizens through a
services are delivered. A report by the World Bank, well-managed policy and regulatory environment. The
(2009) stated that the current cities are faced with many major strategies for improving service delivery as
urgent challenges which have necessitated the outlined by ECA (2003) are total quality management,
implementation of new intelligent service delivery organizational strategic management, training and
systems to tackle those problems. The reason for this development, and the Lean Six Sigma strategy.
strategy is that, in the developed world, cities are
increasingly becoming the driving forces of their
national economies, for example Tokyo, Paris, Zurich, 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Prague and Oslo all produce about a third of their A case study design was used because the
countries’ GDPs (World Bank, 2009). researchers could only access respondents from Kijiado
Local Authority. The study considered the views of both
In Jooste (2008) it is indicated that the use of public the employees (service providers) and service users
values, institutions, and service market in contracting (customers) of Kijiado Local Authority. Questionnaires
can actually improve service delivery. They insist that were conveniently distributed to 150 service users and
stakeholder preferences and democratic processes 100 were returned usable. Questionnaires were also
establish the values to be optimized in service delivery. conveniently distributed to 20 employees of Kijiado
Furthermore, public law and organizational Local Authority and 20 were returned usable. Two self-
arrangements determine the contracting tools available administered questionnaires were designed i.e. one for
for balancing competing values; and the characteristics the employees and the other for service users so as to
of service markets influence which contracting tools and capture the views of both the Kijiado Local Authority
vendors are best suited to achieve stakeholder values and its customers. The main questions that the study
(Jooste, 2008). Moreso, a complex combination of sought to answer were:
strategies is needed to ensure that service employees are  What are the causes of poor service delivery in
willing and able to deliver quality services and that they Kijiado Local Authority?
stay motivated to perform in customer-oriented, service-
 Which strategies can be implemented in order to
minded ways. Continuous motivation of employees to
improve service delivery in Kijiado Local
be customer-oriented will enhance service quality. In
Authority?
order to build a customer-oriented, service-minded
workforce, organizations must hire the right people,
The two questionnaires both had close-ended Likert
develop people to deliver service quality, provide the
type questions and open-ended questions. This made it
needed support systems, and retain the best people
possible to collect both quantitative and qualitative data.
(Jooste, 2008).
The development of the research instruments, especially
the items on Likert type questions was based on similar
In 2003 the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
studies (Aminuzzaman, 2010; Gwayi, 2010; Khalid,
states that the public sector plays a crucial role in
2010; Tamrakar, 2010; DIA, 1999). Data were subjected
national development. To remain viable, efficient and
to qualitative analysis and also to quantitative analysis
effective in responding to the dynamic needs of the
using SPSS Version 21.
citizen, it has to embrace strategies that can enhance
improved productivity and the quality of services
delivered. It outlined a number of strategies that can be

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29th July 2013. Vol.15 No.1
© 2012 JITBM & ARF. All rights reserved

ISSN 2304-0777 www.jitbm.com

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The profile of the employees included gender, age,
department and position held within the department
4.1. Profile of the Respondents while the profile of the service users included gender,
age and occupation. Table 1 below shows a summary of
the profile of the respondents.

Table 1 Response Profile of the Respondents

Frequency Percentage

EMPLOYEES
Gender
Male 8 40%
Female 12 60%
Age
Below 25 2 10%
26 – 35 8 40%
36 – 45 6 30%
Above 46 4 20%
Department of the respondent
Civic 1 5%
Clerk’s Office 5 25%
Town Planning 4 20%
Engineering & Works 2 10%
Land Survey 2 10%
Education 2 10%
Social Service 2 10%
Public Health 2 10%
Position of the respondent
Clerk 8 40%
Manager 4 20%
Head of Department 5 25%
Senior Manager 3 15%

SERVICE USERS
Gender
Male 55 55%
Female 45 45%
Age
Below 25 22 22%
26 – 35 31 31%
36 – 45 34 34%
Above 46 13 13%
Occupation
Unemployed 13 13%
Formally employed 45 45%
Self employed 33 33%
Retired 3 3%
Student 6 6%

Of interest to note about employee respondents respondents are aged between 26 and 45; most
from Table 1 is that there are more female respondents respondents (45%) are from the Clerk’s Office and
(60%) than males; the majority (70%) of the Town Planning departments while, in terms of the

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29th July 2013. Vol.15 No.1
© 2012 JITBM & ARF. All rights reserved

ISSN 2304-0777 www.jitbm.com

position held, the majority (40%) of the respondents are service delivery identified from literature (see
clerks. For service users, there are slightly more males methodology section) were suggested to the respondents
(55%) than females; the majority (87%) of the (employees) and they were asked to rate the extent to
respondents are less than 46 years of age while most of which they agreed based on a scale that ranged from: 1
the respondents (45%) are formally employed. = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The mean and
standard deviations (SD) are summarized in Table 2
4.2. Causes of Poor Service Delivery below.
The objective in this section was to determine the
causes of poor service delivery. Possible causes of poor

Table 2 Mean and SD of Employee Ratings of causes of Poor Service Delivery

Mean SD
Does councilor interference cause poor service delivery? 4.11 1.367
Does corruption cause poor service delivery? 3.89 .963
Is inadequate citizen participation causing poor service delivery? 4.22 .943
Does lack of administrative leadership cause poor service delivery? 2.61 1.092
Is poor documentation a cause of poor service delivery? 3.22 1.629
Does lack of accountability and transparency cause poor service delivery? 3.61 1.335
Is poor utilization of collected revenue causing poor service delivery? 3.72 1.320
Does lack of finance or poor revenue base cause poor service delivery? 3.94 1.259
Is understaffing causing poor service delivery? 3.61 1.614
Is lack of skilled workers causing poor service delivery? 4.11 1.231
Does the lack of modern facilities cause poor service delivery? 3.61 1.378
Is political manipulation a cause of poor service delivery? 3.44 1.097
Is lack of coordination between the local and central government causing poor service delivery? 3.22 1.166
Does lack of capacity of workers cause poor service delivery? 4.11 1.023
Summary: Mean = 3.675; SD = 1.244; Items = 18; N = 20

The results show that all factors (mean ˃ 3.00)

except lack of administrative leadership (mean = 2.61) A service user perspective was also taken into
are causes of poor service delivery. Councilor account to determine the causes of poor service
interference in the affairs of the local authority, lack of delivery. Based on literature (see methodology section),
skilled workers and lack of capacity of employees are a number of statements were suggested to the service
ranked highly (mean = 4.11) as the determinants of poor users and they were asked to respond on a scale that
service delivery while poor documentation and lack of ranged from: 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree.
coordination the local government and central The mean and SD are summarized in Table 3 below.
government were rated lowly (mean = 3.22).

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© 2012 JITBM & ARF. All rights reserved

ISSN 2304-0777 www.jitbm.com

Table 3 Mean and SD of Service User Ratings of Causes of Poor Service Delivery
Mean SD
KTC management is committed to continuous improvement 3.39 1.238
Leadership in KTC takes special interest in citizen complaints 4.00 1.073
Customer complaints are addressed on time once reported 1.88 .998
Citizen participation would improve service delivery 1.83 1.207
Employees do demand for bribes in order to give good service 1.91 1.326
Use of modern technology would improve services 1.94 1.301
Employees treat all customers equally 3.43 1.343
Managers consider suggestions from users 3.59 1.111
Employees have knowledge and skills to deliver services 3.16 1.170
Partnership with community would improve service delivery 3.95 1.123
Outsourcing for effective and efficient service delivery 3.83 1.181
Information on services is available and accessible 3.51 1.202
KTC takes measures to improve service delivery 4.03 1.020
Fee charged matches service delivered 4.23 4.960
Citizens take responsibility caring for council facilities 3.34 1.216
Service users pay their bills when they are due 2.61 1.205
Summary: mean = 3.164; SD = 0.075; Items = 16; N = 100

The results show that failure to address 4.3. Strategies to Improve Service Delivery
customer complaints on time, lack of citizen The objective in this section was to determine the
participation, demand of bribes by employees of the strategies that can be adopted to improve service
local authority, failure to use modern technology, and delivery in Kijiado Local Authority. The study
failure by service users to pay their bills on time (mean considered the views of the employees and service users
˂ 3.00). in section 4.2 above. The strategies identified sought to
address the major causes of poor service delivery
The employees and service users were also asked to already identified by employees and service users. The
give their opinions regarding other factors they felt respondents were also asked to give their opinions
contributed to poor service delivery. The major factors regarding the strategies that can be adopted to improve
identified were: service delivery. Listed below are the main strategies to
 Poor planning- lack of sound plans that specify the improve service delivery in Kijiado Local Authority:
direction the local authority is supposed to take and  Citizen participation in the affairs of the local
the resources to be used to achieve the objectives. authority- the service users identify themselves as
key stakeholders in the local authority. They are of
 Poor monitoring and evaluation- lack institutional the view that their views are to be respected if
arrangements to monitor and evaluate progress defective service delivery is to be achieved by the
from time to time so as to be able to take corrective local authority.
action if there are deviations from the plan.  Partnership with the community in service delivery
 Ethnicity- the tendency by council management to  The local authority should ensure that the
employ locals or relatives regardless of the community acts responsibility towards the council
qualifications or ability to carry out the intended assets
tasks.  The local authority should attend to citizen
 Resistance to change- failure of the local authority complaints on time
to adapt to the changing environment so as to meet  Service users to pay their bills on time
the objectives of the entity. There is organisational  Strategic public service planning
inertia and lack of management will to challenge  Sound human resource policy that includes capacity
the status quo. building and employee motivation

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© 2012 JITBM & ARF. All rights reserved

ISSN 2304-0777 www.jitbm.com

 Adoption of modern technologies and continuous quality, provide the needed support systems, and retain
improvement. the best people (Jooste, 2008). Likewise, ECA (2003)
 Dealing with corruption and improving identified the major strategies for improving service
accountability delivery as TQM, organizational strategic management,
 Segregation of duties between councilors and training and development, and the Lean Six Sigma
management of the local authorities strategy.
 Outsourcing services and partnering with the
private sector 5. CONCLUSIONS
 Offering value for money- the service fee charged Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the
by the local authority should reflect the quality of major causes of poor service delivery are in local
service delivered authorities are: councilor interference and political
manipulation, corruption and lack of accountability and
The results of this study are in line with previous transparency, inadequate citizen participation, poor
studies. Aminuzaman (2010), Gwayi (2010) and ECA human resource policy, failure to manage change, lack
(2003) identified the major causes of poor service of employee capacity, poor planning, and poor
delivery as councilor interference in administration, monitoring and evaluation. The major strategies that can
inadequate public participation, inadequate alignment of be adopted to improve service delivery in local
budget with the requirements of the central government, authorities include:
lack of political and administrative leadership,  Increasing citizen participation in the affairs of the
inadequate infrastructure and shortages of skill, lack of local authority and partnership with the community
citizen participation, and lack TQM implementation in service delivery
which also include inflexibility of response to customer  Flexible response to service user complaints
requirements. . A study done by Aminuzzaman (2010)  Offering value for money and ensuring that service
in Bangladesh also recommended that partnership users pay their bills on time
would improve service delivery. The emphasis on  Strategic public service planning
partnership and outsourcing is consistent with  Sound human resource policy that includes capacity
recommendations made by Joseph (2002) that, building and employee motivation
municipalities and councilors should embrace  Managing change
innovative new approaches to delivering core municipal  Dealing with corruption and improving
services by inviting non-municipal groups and interests accountability
to participate. The findings by Aminnuzaman (2010)  Segregation of duties between councilors and
and Tamrakar (2010) also suggest that eradication of management of the local authorities.
corruption would lead to increased transparency and
 Partnering with other players and outsourcing
accountability. Similarly, Sarshar and Moores (2006)
services
identified the major causes of poor service delivery as:
Finally, the researchers recommend that further studies
lack of strategic awareness, lack of capacity, poor
be conducted on several local authorities in in other
performance monitoring, and poor coordination
parts of the world, especially in developing countries, to
processes. Jooste (2008) also argued that stakeholder
validate the findings of this study.
preferences and democratic processes establish the
values to be optimized in service delivery. More so, a
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