KENYA SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT, NAIROBI

DIPLOMA IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

PROJECT PROPOSAL

BY

JOSPHAT K BIWOTT

TOPIC: EFFECTS OF SERVICE CHARTER ON SERVICE DELIVERY: A LOOK AT MATETE DISTRICT COMMISSIONER’S OFFICE.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND:
Public Service Delivery is defined as a set of institutional arrangements adopted by the government to provide public goods and services to its citizens. Public services delivery has been one of the key functions of the public sector which uses civil service bureaucracies as the instrument for the delivery of services (World Development Report, 2004). In the context of governance, according to 2008 - 2013 Public Sector Reforms & Performance Contracting | Kenya; the service charter, variously referred to as “citizen service delivery charter” or “customer service delivery charter” is a written statement prepared by a public institution which outlines the nature, quality and quantity of service that citizens should expect from the institution. It sets out: what the institution does, what services users can expect, and the standard of the service to be provided. | |
Public service delivery in most of the developing countries is characterized by being ineffective, too much procedural, costly, red taped and lack transparency. In general public servants have not acted as servants of people but rather as masters without any sense of accountability and transparency. People are unaware of how and where to obtain public services and often become the victim of middle man or corruption. Cumbersome procedures, slow pace of decision making and service delivery cause suffering to people and waste their money and time. Matete bureaucracy is organized as same as Weberian model of bureaucracy-including hierarchy, rules and regulations (Service Charterott, 2003, p.46) which are being criticized for non performing characteristics.
The concept of Service Charter was introduced in Kenya as a main tool of Rapid Result Initiative (RRI) in a pilot basis in 2004 through partnership between the Government of Kenya and the World Bank. The pilot was run within the National Aids Control Council and the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and was a resounding success. Following the success of the RRI wave in the first two institutions, in 2006 the government decided to undertake institution-wide RRIs in five additional ministries and following significant success in this further deployment, the Government instructed all ministries, departments and agencies to deploy RRI as a tool for mainstreaming results based management in the Public Service.
The turning point for the adoption of Service Charter in the entire public service however came with its launch and implementation in the entire office of the president, ministries and departments in September 2006. It not only gave service charter visibility and publicity, it also stamped a mark of approval and authority of the highest office. The subsequent success manifested during the celebration of the 100 days was therefore just a confirmation that for effective and efficient results the entire public service needed to adapt service charter approach.

Obongo (2008) indicates that since 2003 there has been three waves of RRI initiatives moving from being a mere tool for generating results within 100 days to being a robust tool for transforming the public service from process orientation to results based management culture; establishing public service values and providing a mechanism that supports the achievement of Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS), the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Vision 2030 – Kenya’s flagship strategy for public service renewal. Several tools are being used to achieve this with Service Charter as one of the main tool.
While it would appear from the foregoing that Service Charter has had a positive impact in Kenya, what is in doubt though is whether such gains have been sustained or are sustainable in the medium to long-term stretch, given the ad hoc nature of Service Charter conception, design and implementation in the public sector.
This paper seeks to explore whether and/or how the current Service Charter methodology inculcates a culture of continuous improvement and sustainability of positive gains made. Service Charter in Matete District is used as a frame of reference and is Service Charter scrutinized to adduce evidence and provide a case for suggestions of modifications to the existing framework.

1.2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:
Service charter was introduced as RRI tool to reform service delivery to the public at Matete District Commissioners office in 2008. This was to be achieved through institutionalizing development and implementation of Service Charter to ensure effective information flow within the District, stakeholders and the public at large. To date four waves of RRI has been implemented with service charter as the main tool. Despite all these efforts to improve service delivery, there is no study carried out in Matete District to assess the effectiveness and challenges faced during implementation of service charter. Therefore, this study seeks to answer the question “To what extend has Service Charter affected service delivery at Matete District?”

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION:

To what extend has Service Charter affected service delivery in Matete District Commissioners office?

1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The general objective of the study is to determine the effects of service charter on service delivery in Matete District Commissioners Office.

To achieve this objective, the study will also find the following specific objectives: * To establish whether services are delivered within stipulated time mentioned in Service Charter in Matete District Commissioners Office. * To examine the feedback mechanisms between the service providers and consumers in Matete District Commissioners office. * To determine whether the Service Charter is displayed publicly and its contents are understood by the service seekers.

1.5 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Feedback mechanism, awareness of services rendered and its delivery within stipulated time are the components of Service Charter which are the bases of transparency, effectiveness and customer satisfaction for improving the service delivery.

Independent Variable. Dependent Variable

* Feedback mechanism. -Transparency.
- Awareness of services rendered. -Effectiveness.
- Timely delivery of services -Customer satisfaction

1.6 OPERATIONALIZATION OF TERMS.

Customer satisfaction is a measure of the degree to which a service meets the customer's expectations.
Efficiency in general describes the extent to which time, effort or cost is well used for the intended task or purpose. It is often used with the specific purpose of relaying the capability of a specific application of effort to produce a specific outcome effectively with a minimum amount or quantity of waste, expense, or unnecessary effort.
Feedback is a Process in which the effect or output of an action is 'returned' (fed-back) to modify the next action.

Transparency is the result of information being available. A government is transparent when the great majority of the information that it holds about its activities, policies and decisions is accessible for the general public.

1.7 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY:
Study on Service Charter is largely unexplored especially in the case of Matete District. Present research will be an attempt to investigate the effects of Service Charter in delivering prompt service to citizen. Besides, this study intends to explore the success of Service Charter in improving service delivery by the District Commissioners office. Similarly, the findings of this study would become supportive to the existing literature on Service Charter and the service delivery in Matete District in general and put new insights in the area of usefulness of Service Charter in public offices.

1.8 OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
In this study both the qualitative and quantitative methods will used because this kind of mixed method overcomes the disadvantage of each method. The qualitative method is chosen as research is conducted in its natural setting and mainly to have descriptive information regarding the impact of Service Charter on service delivery. The quantitative method will be used to map the exact figures. The major focus of the research is to explore the existing awareness, use and impact of Service Charter. Data will be collected by using mixed method approach in their natural setting and analysed in an interpretive way.