Legislating Citizen’s Charters to Promote Citizen-Centric Public Services

Magdalena L MendozaSenior Fellow

Development Academy of the Philippines

Multinational Conference on Improving the Quality of Public Services

Moscow, Russia, June 28-29, 2011

Outline of Presentation

• Introduction• Legislating Citizen’s Charter– Issue Formation– Policy Formulation– Policy Adoption– Policy Implementation

• Evaluation and Conclusion

Location: Off the south-east coast of Asia and sprawls between Asia mainland and Australia between latitude 21°25'N and 4°23'N and longitude 116°E and 127°E.

Land Area: Total land area approximately 343,448.32 sq. km.; one of the largest island groups in the world (7,107 islands); divided into three island grouping: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Population: 88.57 million as of 2007, annual growth rate of 2.04%

Religion: Predominantly Christian

Form of Government: Democratic

Branches of Government: Executive, Legislative (bicameral), Judiciary (independent)

The Philippines

Source: NSCB 2011

Development Academy of the Philippines

Training Education Policy Research Technical Services

Center for Governance Center for Quality and Competitiveness Center for Knowledge Management Center for Sustainable Human Development Graduate School of Public and Development Management DAP sa Mindanao DAP Tagaytay Conference Facilities

What is a Citizen’s Charter

• A Citizen’s Charter is an official document that communicates in simple terms information on the services offered by the government to its citizens.

• It describes the step-by-step procedure for availing a particular service, and the guaranteed performance levels that citizens may expect for that service.

• Initiative introduced in the United Kingdom by the Conservative Government under John Major in 1991

• Adopted as a policy of over 20 countries to improve quality in the delivery of public services

Citizens as “Customers”

“All public services are paid for by the individual citizens, either directly or through taxes. Citizens are,

therefore, entitled to expect high quality services, responsive to their needs, provided efficiently at a

reasonable cost. And where the state is engaged in regulating, taxing or administering justice, these

functions too must be carried out fairly, effectively and courteously.”

Source: UK Government

Issue Formation

Issue Formation

Policy Agenda

Policy Formulation

Policy Adoption

Policy Implementation

Legislating Citizen’s Charter:The policy process

Policy Evaluation

Issue Formation: Issue rhetoric and indicators elevated the problem of red tape at the consciousness of the public

• Social Weather Surveys– Corruption seen by many

Filipinos as an economic issue since it hurts investments

– Perceived bribery in obtaining local permits, paying taxes, securing licenses from national government

• Filipino Report Card– Concern on quality, affordability,

adequacy and responsiveness of pro-poor services

• Worst Red Tape Survey– Amplified concern on tedious and

costly business transactions

• World Competitiveness Yearbook– Philippines among the least

competitive among 61 countries (2006)

• Doing Business Report– Pronounced disparity in number

of procedures, processing time, costs of doing business compared to OECD countries

• Corruption Perception Index– Philippines received below

median rating

Red Tape and Corruption Nexus

“The bureaucratic process itself may be a source of delay and other costs. In that case, incentives for corruption

arise as applicants try to get to the head of the queue or otherwise get better service. To further exploit their

corrupt opportunities, officials may create or threaten to create red tape as a means of extracting bribes. This strategy is plausible in many real world applications

because even honest officials need to take some time and trouble to process applications.”

Source: Rose-Ackerman 2006

Corruption in Public Service Delivery

“Lack of accountability can breed corruption in service delivery programs because the “exit mechanism” which is operating in a market

context does not work well in the public sector.”

Source: Reinika and Svensson 2006

CITIZEN’S CHARTER

Services offered Obligations of citizens Service standards Statement of

guarantee Contact list Suggestion and

complaints procedure Redress mechanism

Government

Citizens

InformationInformationPublic trustPublic trust

Value for Taxpayers’

Money

Value for Taxpayers’

Money

Citizen Satisfaction

Citizen Satisfaction

Promoting Citizen-Centric Public Services through Citizen’s Charters

Policy Stream: Legislative TrackTiming Proposals Salient provision

11th Congress (1998-2001)

House Bill No. 3409 Defining and penalizing “fixing”

12th Congress (2001-2004)

House Bill No. 3947House Bill No. 532House Bill No. 766

Limiting number of signatoriesCutting red tapeAmendment of RA 6713

13th Congress(2004-2007)

House Bill No. 3309House Bill No. 3776

Providing information on government servicesTransactions reengineering, service standards, Citizen’s Charter, Report Card Surveys, criminalizing fixers

Senate Bill No. 46Senate Bill No. 1934Senate Bill No. 2546Senate Bill No. 2561

Cutting red tapeCutting red tapeProviding information on government servicesTransactions reengineering, service standards, Citizen’s Charters, Report Card Surveys, criminalizing fixers

Senate Bill No. 2589 Consolidated version of SB 46, SB 1934, SB 2546, SB 2561, HB 3309, HB 3776

Policy Stream: Non-legislative TrackTiming Policy Salient provision

Mid-1990s Mamamayan Muna, Hindi Mamaya Na (Citizens First)

Citizen Complaint Handling

2000 Comprehensive Framework and Program Strategy to Fight Corruption under the Estrada Administration

Mandated Citizen’s Charter

2001 First State of the Nation Address by President Arroyo

Signature Reduction

2003 Office of the President Memorandum Circular No. 23

Posting of Service Guides and Workflow Charts

2005-2006 Pilot adaptation of Citizen’s Charters

2007 Executive Order No. 605 Adoption of ISO-QMS Standards in the Public Sector, establishment of Citizen’s Charter as manifestation of service guarantee

John Kingdon’s Organized Anarchy Model

Problem StreamProblem Stream

Political StreamPolitical Stream

Policy StreamPolicy Stream

Unique window of opportunity in

2006

Unique window of opportunity in

2006

Indicators • Social Weather Surveys• Competitiveness Reports• Doing Business Reports• Worst Red Tape Survey Events: Edsa Dos

• National mood: heightened level of intolerance to corruption

• Organized move of the business sector to pressure government to cut red tape

• Anti-corruption of a key plank of administration

Consensus building of various stakeholders

RA No. 9485 or Anti-Red Tape Act (mandating Citizen’s Charter) enacted in 2007

RA No. 9485 or Anti-Red Tape Act (mandating Citizen’s Charter) enacted in 2007

• Formulation of government anti-red tape program

• Anti-red tape policy entrepreneurs from academe, business, Congress

Consolidation of House and Senate Bills

Tilt effect:

Republic Act No. 9485 (Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007)An Act to Improve Efficiency in the Delivery of Government Service to the Public by Reducing Bureaucratic Red Tape, Preventing Graft and Corruption and Providing Penalties Therefor

Corruption = Monopoly + Discretion – Accountability*

Factor that induce

corruption

Strategy to reduce vulnerability

Some features of Citizen’s Charter

Monopoly power

Remove monopoly of information

Publication of procedures, document, requirements, processing times, fees

Discretion Circumscribe discretion in evaluation

Prescribed action timesFormal notice in case of disapproval

Accountability Collect information about agent’s performance

Complaints and feedback mechanism

* Heuristic formula of Robert Klitgaard

Agency Compliance

Type of government agency• National government • Local government units• Government corporations• State universities and

colleges• Local hospitals and local

schools

TOTAL

Percent compliance 70%

95.7%79.4%75.3%

58%

79.8%

Source: Civil Service Commission, March 2011

Factors that Affected Implementation

• Difficulty in the identifying frontline services and segregating simple vs complex transaction because of tight requirements

• Reluctance of agencies to publish services standards which may not be realizable given their current level of resources

• Gentle learning curve did not allow ample time for thorough transactions reengineering

Report Card Survey in 2011

In terms of service quality, respondents expressed satisfaction with the correctness and accuracy of the service being provided by the agencies than the time it took to complete a transaction. In all the areas measuring the satisfaction with service providers, majority of the respondents said they were either satisfied or very satisfied though a few dissatisfactions was also recorded.

Source: Civil Service Commission, 2011

Report Card Survey in 2011

Among the six indicators for measuring the satisfaction with the frontline service providers, the respondents were most satisfied with the adherence of the service providers with the “First come-first served” principle though a few dissatisfaction was also recorded. Moreover, the respondents are more satisfied with the service quality in terms of correctness and accuracy than the time it took to complete a transaction.

Policy Evaluation: Sub-optimal results

• Citizen’s Charters creating islands of good practices on citizen-centric services– Mandated reengineering translated in

simplification of some procedures– Made government processes transparent– Initiated citizen focus– Government agencies more conscious of service

standards• But fragmentation in service delivery persists

Reduced to 2 days in 2010

Reduced to 38 days in 2010

Conclusion

• Legislating Citizen’s Charters, while a necessary step, is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to establish a citizen-centric government.

• There is a limit to what efficiency improvements agencies can do on their own (“silo” effect).

• To strengthen citizen focus, Citizen’s Charter should be complemented with “smart regulation” and “horizontal government”.

Thank you and Mabuhay!