Seminar Presentation on Norderney, Germany

Are individual citizens relevant in developing countries’ public service delivery?

By

JULIUS Byaruhanga

M.A. Democratic Governance and Civil Society

Weekend Seminar on Norderney, Germany

23^rd -25^th November 2012

Presentation summary

1. Public services in DC
2. PSD most relevant Institutions
3. Citizenry mandate in accountability & SD
4. Reality in majority DCs
5. Possible roles played by individual citizens
6. Citizen relationship with governments/state and Private institutions
7. Conclusion

—     —Public Services 

Public services  are  defined as those services which are mainly, or completely, funded  by taxation (Peter C. Humphreys 1998)

Public services can be considered as those services so essential to modern life that for moral reasons their universal provision should be guaranteed, and they may/can be associated with fundamental human rights by the virtue of their nature

So, Public service delivery is the implementation of those services and making sure they reach those people and places they're intended to!

Public service delivery can also be defined as the process of making public goods and services reach the expected stake holders or the general public as expected either from the government or government partners for the good of the general public

—Sample of Public Services

INFRASTRUCTURE

· 

• Road, water, air and Rail transport.
• Electricity
• Oil and gas
• —Etc

PRODUCTION

•  —Agriculture
• Tourism
•   Private sector competitiveness
• Etc

SOCIAL SERVICE

• Education sectors
• Employment opportunities creation
• Health sectors
• Water and Environment
• Etc

—

Institutions to be strengthened for governments’ effectiveness in SD

In promoting delivery of the above services, governments in developing countries will need to strengthen their service delivery strategically positioned institutions for them to effectively play their roles in justification of their establishment. Examples of such may include; 

1.  —Health oriented Commission
2. —National Planning Authorities
3. Human Rights Commissions
4. Courts of Judicature
5. Parliamentary Commissions and Accounts Committees
6. Electoral Commissions
7. Inspectorates of Government
8. Law Reform Commissions
9. Offices of the Auditor General
10. Promotion of civil society and individual citizen participation
11. —Local Government Departments and municipal or Town council Departments 
12. Other government institutions related to service delivery

— —Citizenry mandate in promoting accountability and effective service delivery

Service experiences are the outcomes of interactions between organizations, related systems/processes, service employees and customers (Mary Jo Bitner, William T. Faranda, Amy R. Hubbert and Valarie A. Zeithaml 1996)

In the constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 Art1(1) All power belongs to the people who shall exercise their sovereignty in accordance with the same Constitution. “To what extend do they use that power?”

In the same constitution on accountability objective XXVI

(i) All public offices shall be held in trust for the people.

(ii) All persons placed in positions of leadership and responsibility shall, in their work, be answerable to the people.

“Is there really accountability to people? & Do people demand for accountability?”

—

Reality of such Constitutional Provisions

1. Inferiority complex; Fear of Public officials “servants” by “commoners”
2. Less or no accountability both through media and other forms of communication
3. —Less or no access to Government gazettes and other necessary information
4. —High corruption levels at all governance and management levels
5. Manipulation into bureaucratic work by politicians
6. Etc….

— 

Are there some roles played by individual citizens in promoting Service Delivery?

YES!

• Electoral powers
• Payment of Taxes
• “Local Citizens”  can actually be involved in co-creating the service provided by government or the state; Improved service performance can be attained by viewing the client/customer as a “partial” employee (Mills, Chase and Margulies
• Service firms should be encouraged to involve customers more in production in order to increase productivity (Lovelock and Young 1979)
• Formation of community service oriented groups/associations
• Follow up of public expenditures through their local leaders; as funders of public services, its their role to claim for accountability
• Own, support and take part in developmental government programmes

——— 

Conclusion

Time is now when all citizens in developing countries can exercise their rights for their own good. 

Any organized society with no doubt will always have an influential voice in the services they get, when they get them and how they should get them.  

It’s time to stop waiting for “empty” promises made by politicians during campaigns but to claim for what you deserve at the time we want them because we have worked for it and contributed to it through our sweat as we pay taxes.

—

If all citizens in any country can know that power belongs to them, then exercise of that power will not only be a change but a fundamental change in Public Service delivery in any developing state.  

—END

Thank you so much for your attention!

Julius Byaruhanga

Public Service Delivery Activist

For your comments please use this blog

What is your stake on your Country's Service Delivery

Community/Personal roles in managing Service Delivery 

It has for long been a challenge when it comes to community participation in Service delivery at all levels right from planning to implementation and evaluation of results! Citizens in most developing countries have taken it to be the only role of the State and Government to provide services and have forgotten that it can as well be their own role as well. One may ask how and why should take part in Service delivery or can do a contribution; but it is an easy deal here. One has only to play the social and civic roles and responsibilities as provided for in a Constitution or other laws governing country of their residence and hold the Governments and leaders including bureaucrats accountable to ensure that there is efficiency and effectiveness in Service Delivery at grass root levels.

Constitutionally for example in Uganda, it is the role of the citizens to ensure that service delivery is effective and efficient as already planned by the central government for example. Therefore, the general public plays an important role in ensuring effective and efficient service delivery. As one scholar argued that “Service experiences are the outcomes of interactions between organizations, related systems/processes, service employees and customers” (Mary Jo Bitner, William T. Faranda, Amy R. Hubbert and Valarie A. Zeithaml [Received June 1996 Revised January 1997])[i] therefore the community is the sole controller of SD all over the world.

In some cases, consumer inputs are required to aid the service organization in creating the service (moderate level of participation). Inputs can include information, effort or physical possessions. All three of these inputs are required for a CPA to prepare a client’s tax return effectively: information in the form of tax history, marital status and number of dependents; effort from the client in putting the information together in a useful fashion; and physical possessions such as receipts, past tax returns, etc. Similar types of information, effort and possessions are required when the customer is an organization seeking to outsource services such as payroll, customer database management, or tax accounting.[ii]

In some situations, customers can actually be involved in co-creating the service (high level of participation). For such services, customers have essential production roles that, if not fulfilled, will affect the nature of the service outcome. All forms of education, training and health maintenance fit this profile. Unless the customer does something (e.g. studies, exercises, eats the right foods), the service provider cannot effectively deliver the service outcome.[iii] Similarly, an organization seeking training services for its employees will need to help define the nature of the training, identify the right employees for the training, provide incentives for them to learn and facilitate their use of the training on the job. If the organization does not do this, it and the employees involved will not receive the full benefits of the service.

Customers’ roles in service experiences

Within the levels of participation just discussed, customers can play a variety of roles. It is believed without doubt that;

§  The customer is productive resource;

§  The customer is contributor to quality, satisfaction and value; and

§  The customer is competitor to the service organization.

And in our case on Public Service delivery, service recipients are the customers and the Government or State is a service provider.

Scholarly Chronology of customer participation

Author	Major customer participation issue addressed
Lovelock and Young (1979)	Service firms should be encouraged to involve customers more in production in order to increase productivity
Langeard et al. (1981)	Using seven service dimensions to discriminate among groups, authors segmented consumers according to their willingness to participate as service co-producers
Bateson (1983; 1985)	Demonstrated empirically that, across several service industries, a portion of customers’ finds self-service intrinsically attractive. Also found a portion of customers who are not at all interested in selfservice
Mills, Chase and Margulies	Improved service performance can be attained by viewing the (1983) client/customer as a “partial” employee
Bowen and Schneider (1985)	Advocated the employment of organizational socialization tools to provide customers “realistic previews” of their forthcoming service experience
Silpakit and Fisk (1985)	More clearly defined the concept of customer participation. Proposed a theoretical framework for “participating” the service encounter, i.e. maximizing the consumer’s participation in the service
Mills and Morris (1986)	Advocated viewing clients as “partial” employees of service organizations; this perspective guided development of a model of client involvement stages
Larsson and Bowen (1989)	Advocated use of script theory to socialize customers as “partial” employees of the service organization, so that the firm can reduce uncertainty in service operations by clarifying appropriate customer behaviours
Kelley, Donnelley and Skinner (1990); Kelley, Skinner, and Donnelley (1992)	Suggested organization socialization process as means for customers to learn participation roles. Empirically assessed the level of organizational socialization of customers in a financial services setting. Higher levels were found to be positively related to several factors, including customer satisfaction

By; Julius Byaruhanga 

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[i] Mary Jo Bitner Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA, William T. Faranda, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, Amy R. Hubbert University of Nebraska-Omaha, Omaha, USA, Valarie A. Zeithaml, University of North Carolina, North Carolina, US 1997. Customer contributions and roles in service delivery

[ii] Ibid

[iii] Ibid