Smart Practices for Oversight by Non-State Actors

on Administrative Service Provision

Policy Context: Administrative

Services Reform in 2014 - Mandatory service provision through CASPs at city level (2014/2013 - 1.6 mln

vs 0.99 mln admin services provided; 629 / 239 CASPs created)

- Creation of CASPs at district level since 1/01/2014

- New regulation on the list of services to be provided through CASPs: in May 2014, the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers approved the list of the most popular (basic) public services through CASPs (State Migration Service, State Registration Service and State Agency on Land Issues).

- In total, 1/3 of CASPs, primarily created in the regional capital cities, are already in line with the key requirements of the current legislation - really citizen-oriented offices offering a wide spectrum of administrative services in a convenient way (non-cabinet system of service provision, e-system of queue management, reception, special equipment for disabled people, additional services like banking services, copying machines etc).

Policy Context: Administrative Services Reform in 2014

- On average, there is positive perception of the CASP model among

citizens (the score is 3.9 points on a 5-grade scale)

- However, in 2014 the quality of adminservices was assessed

positively by only 5% of citizens (vs 12% in 2013), and as poor – by

40% (vs 32% in 2013)

- The Reform is defined as a priority for Ukrainian Government in the

Programme of the Cabinet of Ministers as part of the chapter “New

Public Administration Policy. Debureaucratization, Decentralisation,

Deregulation and Responsibility”; in the Coalition Agreement of

Ukrainian Parliament 2014; and as part of the civic initiative

Reanimation Package of Reforms.

- 13% of citizens know that CASP is created in their city, and 36% of

citizens have applied for the services to CASP, and 59% of them are

satisfied with the quality of service provided.

Policy Context: Challenges and Opportunities in 2014

Challenges Opportunities

• Development of CASP’s

capacities was uneven across

the country

• Lack of cooperation and

resistance from state

institutions which had to

transfer their services to

CASPs

• Lack of state support to CASPs’

development

• Development of the e-services was a

growing trend despite slow progress

in the policy and legal environment

for the area, and absence of the

interoperability systems to ensure the

online service provision on a wider

scale.

• Willingness of the civil society to

engage in monitoring of the quality of

administrative services The project tried to respond to challenges and opportunities of 2014 by adjusting

the capacity development programmes in line with the priority directions of the

reform, implementing measures for CASP capacities’ enhancement and adding

the e- focus to the public monitoring of the administrative service provision in the

municipalities.

Project Results in 2014

• Developing CSOs capacities to monitor efficiently administrative services provision: project results

• Providing seed grants to CSOs for public monitoring of administrative services

• Documenting and disseminating the smart practices of the selected CSOs on public monitoring of the administrative service provision

• Sensitising the local communities on the major principles of participatory governance to raise their awareness and support of the social accountability initiatives

• Promoting incorporation of feedback loops within the practice of administrative services provision in municipalities

Seed Grants to CSOs for Public

Monitoring of Adminservices

Indicator Number of

Projects

Municipalities Covered Total Cost Project Funded

Completed 12 Myrgorod; Chernivtsi (2); Ivano-Frankivsk; Ukrayinka; Alchevsk; Donetsk, Gorlivka, Khartsyzk; Snizhne; Cherkasy; Pervomaysk; Rivne, Dubno, Ostrog, Kuznetsovsk; Kherson, Chaplynka, Genichesk, Kalanchak; 100 biggest cities

78’157 USD

56’820 EUR

45’637 USD

33’178 EUR

In progress 3 Sumy; Kramatorsk; Kherson

Under risk 1 Lugansk

Total 16

Seed Grants to CSOs for Public

Monitoring of Adminservices

Access of vulnerablegroups of population

E-governance tools inCASPs

Overall quality of serviceprovision

The impact of the completed monitoring initiatives will be analysed early in

2015.

Use of ICT to facilitate the

administrative service provision • Development of the e-services was a

growing trend in 2014.

• The project supported the assessment of

100 biggest municipalities of Ukraine in

terms of the level and quality of using the

e-governance tools as the basis for the

electronic service development

• Access to information: 90% of city councils ensure access to information and

update their external web-portals. 71% use the interactive tools poorly (no

feedback mechanisms or case consideration tools)

• Administrative services: the list and description with templates of documents

are present at the majority of the web-sites (can be downloaded). Not enough

attention is paid to privacy policy (user authentication and security of

personalized data entered by the user

• CASPs: physical premises are in place, while e-readiness (electronic self-

service terminals, electronic queues, opportunities to make an appointment to

visit CASP online) is still characteristic of champion CASP rather than a

regular practice.

Webinars and Networking

Sessions for CSOs

• Aimed to provide guidance and advice on

the administrative services reform,

monitoring techniques and best practices, e-

governance, communication etc.

• 5 events for 70 participants in total

• Well received by participants, require

technical support prior to participation in the

event

• A follow up dissemination of hand-outs and

learning materials presented in course of

the webinar adds value to the webinar

format.

Documenting and Disseminating

the Smart Practices of the Selected

CSOs • Taking Stock of Samopomich experience

• Methodological recommendations for CSOs willing to

replicate the experience

• Approach is underpinned by the idea that all the

quality criteria of administrative service provision

cannot be monitored using one method only

• Newsletter “Quality and Accessible Administrative

Services”

• Reflects sections on policy and legislation novelties in

the area of administrative services; best practices of

administrative service provision through CASPs;

experiences of civil society engaged in the monitoring

of the quality of administrative service provision.

• A joint initiative of the project with the governmental

initiative “Decentralisation of Power”

• 12 issues plus an annual summary

Lessons Learnt from CSO

Projects’ Implementation

Contributing Factors Challenges

Political will of the city mayor and CASP

management to listen to citizens’

feedback and readiness to introduce

required changes

Lack of systemic knowledge on

methodologies of public monitoring of

administrative services

Demonstration effect from positive

experiences of other CASPs where the

level of citizens’ satisfaction increased

after the public monitoring exercise

Resistance of CASPs’ visitors to interact

with the monitors because of lack of

trust in sincere willingness of the

authorities to implement public

recommendations

Adoption of new legislation causing the

need for changes in the CASP’s operation

which require external knowledge

Frequent changes in CASPs’

management and heads of bodies

which created them

Access of CSOs to capacity development

opportunities in the area of administrative

services

Resistance of local authorities to

introduce changes in CASPs’ operation

required by the law

Prior experience in monitoring initiatives

on different issues and horizontal links

between different CSOs for experience

Lessons Learnt from CSO

Projects’ Implementation

• Elaborate the minimum quality standard of service

provision through CASPs and establish regular

monitoring of the latter by the Ministry of Economic

Development and Trade of Ukraine and civil society

• Encourage a more active use of ICT tools in the

process of administrative services provision

(making appointment online, informing about the

case consideration, dissemination of useful

information on the new legislation, online

application for services)

• Conduct wide awareness campaign among the

citizens of the country on the efficiency of CASP

model

• Create the sole list of the administrative services to

prevent the service providing institutions and their

subsidiary enterprises from imposing other

additional services on a paid basis and establish

constant revision of this list aimed at its

simplification and reduction of the period of their

Awareness Campaigns on

Administrative Services

• These campaigns were a mandatory requirement to the design of

CSOs monitoring initiatives supported by the project.

• 160 media records in Internet on the contents related with the CSOs’

projects

• The majority of the CSOs used the Internet resources to highlight key

aspects of their projects’ implementation, less CSOs used newspapers,

and some created videos with support of the local TV channels

• Other tools - news on Gurt, CivicUA, Resource Centre’s page; creating

specialized sections on administrative services or CSOs crowdsourcing

resources; thematic groups in social networks

Promoting feedback loops

between CSOs and municipalities

• Trainings and Seminars for CASPs

• 2 seminars for 81 representatives representing 45

CASPs participated

• Topics covered: reform novelties, cooperation with

the state authorities transferring their services,

methodologies for engagement of CSOs for

monitoring, e-governance, interaction with visitors

• Supporting Ambient Accountability Experiences in

CASPs

• 6 joint initiatives of CSOs-CASPs were supported

• In general, they were related to the arrangement

of the information stands, boards and displays of

information materials on administrative service

provision in the CASPs premises to make service

delivery process more transparent and

accountable

Plans for 2015

• Supporting the advocacy initiatives at the national level for real

transfer of administrative services to CASPs (closer to the

citizens as service users) and further CASPs institutional

strengthening.

• Enhancing CASPs capacities as service providers and CSOs as

entry points for citizens to engage in monitoring of administrative

service provision through capacity building events, support to

monitoring initiatives and knowledge products’ dissemination.

• Supporting elaboration of the policy and legal documents to raise

the quality of administrative service provision, in particular the

minimum quality standard of service provision through CASPs.

• Further nurturing of “community of practitioners” from CASPs and

CSOs interested in administrative service monitoring, incl.

through regular dissemination of a newsletter “Quality and

Accessible Administrative Services”.