By Shanker Man Singh
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has promised to improve public services. Presenting the proposal for the vote of confidence in the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Dahal promised to improve the inefficiency and slowness seen in various government agencies. Mentioning the long queues to get various services, he said that every citizen should feel that the government is their guardian.
“The government now has to become a servant that is heard, seen and experienced by the people,” he said. Referring to the addition of necessary staff in the state and union, PM Dahal said that the problems seen in the transportation system services, community schools, and government hospitals will be solved immediately, while the Ministry of Finance has reduced the flat by 20 per cent.
It is natural to expect good behavior, politeness, speed in work, fairness and cleanliness from the employees when the service recipients go to the government office in the technological age of the world. However, due to various reasons in our country, this could not happen. The Corruption Perception Index states that corruption is rampant, and needs vigorous efforts and commitment.
Different countries have their own type of work culture. But without the development of a working culture and working system, the economic and social development of any country cannot be possible.
The American experience regarding public service delivery is that what kind of communication tools do people want to receive to what extent and what kind of services is the government providing?
The following responses were received from a study conducted by an American organization in the United States.
From this, it appears that the service users want to receive services using information technology rather than attending to the service provider themselves.
It is said that street bureaucracy is in operation in Belgium because the common people can get the necessary services from the street. Just like the commercial banks of Nepal have installed ATMs in various places, the Belgian government has installed computers to provide government services in various places. The customer can get the necessary information and services through the computer. Complaints about that too.
In Nepal, a voice recorder has been arranged in the office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers to manage the complaints 24 hours a day. Nepal Police has operated a 24-hour control room. From time to time, mobile services and camps operating in remote parts of Nepal have been working to effectively provide services to the people according to the concept of mobile government.
The government has been providing services to the people in various fields, from passport, citizenship, national identity, peace and security to telephone, electricity, drinking water, education, health, agriculture, etc.
People have benefited from these services, although looking at the current state of public services, it is seen that there are extreme complaints and dissatisfaction among the service receivers regarding the attitude of the political sector, the response of the people receiving the services and the availability, quality and effectiveness of the services.
Most of the study reports related to administration reform have presented suggestions for improvement in the field of service operation by pointing out various deficiencies and weaknesses. However, there are few examples of those suggestions being implemented in practice. The reasons for these deficiencies are as follows: Lack of political commitment, lack of appropriate and practical policies and procedures, lack of public accountability in service provider agencies, lack of appropriate incentive system for employees involved in service delivery, lack of flexibility in the procedures for service delivery designed from the central level following local social, economic and geographical diversity, service delivery, Not being able to use financial, human and material resources properly in the work, because the programs related to service fulfilment are not objective and procedural, not being able to pay proper attention of the policymakers to whether the real purpose of providing the service has been fulfilled, continuous supervision from the top level of the workplace offices in the work of bringing efficiency and frugality to the service.
Public service is the bridge between the state and the people. Along with the development of state and governance systems, the concept of public service has evolved.
In the 1980s, although the private sector managed to win the hearts of consumers by providing prompt and quality services to their consumers, a wide debate began about the government not providing effective services to the people.
In the middle of the eighties, the concept of innovative public management was developed to adopt the good aspects adopted by the private sector in providing services to the consumers in the government sector as well.
One of the important principles of modern public management is the ‘Public Choice Theory’.
Quasi-marketization is considered an important element of this. The act of delivering public services to its citizens through the market is called quasi-marketization.
With this, common people can choose the service provider and get the service through the competitive service provider. The government bears the responsibility for that service.
Public administration is a legally established state-controlled mechanism that collects the necessary means and resources for the operation of the state and distributes them fairly and appropriately.
Scholars like Plato and Aristotle took administration as the main basis of state management, but until 1887, the administration was considered a branch of political science. In 1887, Woodrow Wilson insisted that administration should remain a separate discipline, separating it from politics.
The concept of innovative public management was developed in the 1980s due to the slow, process-oriented and disorganized nature of traditional public administration mechanisms. An important concept embraced by modern public management is agency.
The fact that public administration can be made competitive, efficient and result-oriented by adopting methods such as agents from the research done by organizations such as the World Bank, agency is considered a tool for public administration reform.
Service seekers are aggrieved by the behavior and service delivery of the government base, which is the daily work of citizens, including passport, national identity, citizenship, immigration, shipping, water supply, electricity, transportation, taxes, district administration, police, labor, agriculture, and courts.
The government, which has not been able to provide even the minimum services and facilities, is collecting taxes from the common people under many names. After going to the federal system, the tax burden has increased.
However, the common people do have not got the facilities of convenient roads, quality drinking water, waste management etc.
It is necessary and mandatory to address it properly. Due to the indifference of the employees, the citizens are not getting basic services and facilities, and there is no regulation on the market price and quality.
Login to add a comment