Improve Public Service Delivery

Public service delivery is essentially a tool for connecting a government with its people. It is also a barometer of good governance. There is no doubt that effective public service delivery indicates strong good governance. Good governance, in turn, may go on to prove whether a government is successful or not in the eyes of the public. In Nepal, public service delivery is not effective. Although successive governments have emphasised good governance, the same cannot be felt in reality. The general people have to face hassles in availing themselves of public services in government offices, be it in transport management offices, land revenue offices, passport issuing offices or any other government offices.

When the present government came to power under the leadership of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, the first cabinet meeting decided to improve public service delivery in various government offices. And the Prime Minister also vowed to make the public service delivery mechanism robust so as to make the people feel that there was strong good governance. But there has been no improvement on this front. With the passage of time, such talk is confined to talk only. As a matter of fact, they should walk the talk rather than indulge in tall talk. 

Negligence 

Whenever one visits a government office for public services, one may not easily get the services in most cases. This is because there is no service-oriented spirit in public servants. They may think that they are masters when they are there to serve the people. Most government offices are marked by negligence, irresponsibility or procrastination. Further, there is red tape and complicated bureaucratic processes to make the public service delivery mechanism nagging and bothersome. It is said that most government offices are not able to deliver public services effectively for lack of resources, but the fact is that it is due to a lack of efficiency and good management that the public service delivery mechanism is not satisfactory. Even if resources are lacking, it is incumbent upon the offices to add required resources so as to make public service delivery effective. 

It may be mentioned that the long and difficult processes of getting public services in some government offices are in favour of intermediaries. With such cumbersome processes in place, the people are forced to seek the help of such intermediaries by incurring additional charges. Although the people are requested not to depend on intermediaries or such intermediaries are sometimes kicked out of the service-rendering government offices, the intermediaries are still ruling the roost. 

Whenever we talk about public service delivery, we have also to consider amenities to be provided for service-seekers. There are parking problems in the government offices. Vehicles are not allowed to be parked inside the offices. They may not be allowed to be parked outside the offices by traffic cops. It is difficult to park even motorcycles or scooters, let alone cars, in the government offices. Transport management offices are one of the busiest government offices. Most of the offices are facing space constraints. In the Ekantakuna-based office, there is no space for parking four-wheelers. They have to be parked on the parking lot owned by an individual at an exorbitant charge. The service-seekers have no option but to pay the charges through their noses. 

Another problem is related to restrooms. There are not adequate restrooms in the government offices for the service-seekers. And the ones available are often filthy and not in good condition. The taps are mostly out of order. The women service-seekers feel even more discomfort. The government offices collect a good deal of revenue from the public, but they do not pay attention to adding or improving public amenities for the convenience of the service-seekers.   

Most people are not satisfied with the way public services are being delivered as well as with the existing infrastructure in place. This is one of the reasons why public trust in the government is declining. It has been etched in the people’s minds that getting public services is cumbersome and time-consuming. The country has changed the governance system from the Panchayat system to the multi-party democratic system to the present-day republican system. We are in the 21st century. It is said that man has made progress on various fronts. But the mindset of those whose duty it is to serve the people has not changed at all! In fact, they do not seem to care about the hassles the people have to undergo while seeking public services. 

On the other hand, there is too much procrastination in the delivery of certain services. Driving licences cannot be issued even within a year by the authorities concerned. The problem has arisen since the introduction of smart licences. There is a pile of driving licences waiting to be printed. Driving licences are valid for five years. But the authorities concerned do not think about extending the tenure of such licences to ten years as in the case of passports. If the tenure is extended, the workload of printing licences will get halved. Once there was talk of extending the tenure of licences but it has since faded away.

Snail-paced progress

Likewise, the government has introduced national identity cards. As in the case of driving licences, there is snail-paced progress in printing such cards. One has to wait for more than one year to land a national identity card. The question is, why is the government indifferent to such vital services as issuing national identity cards? It seems the government has not done any homework before introducing such systems as national identity cards and smart driving licences. Even the government’s drive of installing embossed number plates on vehicles is in a shambles.

Therefore, it is high time the government improved the public service delivery mechanism to win back the trust of the people. The government should also do adequate homework before introducing a new system. A new system is supposed to provide more convenience for people. But in our case, such a system has turned out to be an albatross around the government’s neck as the service delivery mechanism has deteriorated vis-à-vis in the past.  

(Maharjan has been regularly writing on contemporary issues for this daily since 2000.)