Quality of Service Delivery
This article deals with topic titled ‘Quality of Service Delivery .’ This is part of our series on ‘Ethics’ . For more articles , you can click here
Understanding the Concept
This concept has to be understood w.r.t. two different angles.
- Quality of services being provided to the poor sections of the population. These services are usually provided free of cost or are subsidized by the government. Examples : education, healthcare etc. These services are in tune with the Directive Principles of State Policy.
- Services for which the government charges the citizens for service delivery e.g. passport, driving license, gas and electricity connection, telephone services etc. Since the citizens pay for the services, they expect time bound delivery of quality services
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Problems in Service Delivery
- Weberian Bureaucracy : Working of most government organizations is still based on the Weberian principle which emphasize on rules and regulations . For Bureaucracy, Rules and Regulations have become end in themselves rather than means for making a just society.
- Inefficiencies & Absenteeism : Study : 25 percent absenteeism of teachers in government schools .
- Leakages : Rajiv Gandhi’s famous statement that if Government allocates ₹ 10 for public service , only ₹1 reaches the intended beneficiary
- Convenience of service providers not receivers: Public services have been provided on the basis of convenience of the service providers rather than receivers.
- Lack of accountability and transparency
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Ways to Improve Service Delivery
Performance-based bonus payments
- While salaries of Public Servants are high, the pay does not in any way depend on any measure of performance .
Contractual structure of employment
- Modify job to contractual nature making job renewal subject to satisfactory performance
Increasing Social Accountability
- Eg School Managements committees and Rogi kalyan samitis
Citizen Report Card
- Citizen Report Cards are prepared mainly by NGOs which is based on basis of response in quality of service by Citizens
Involving Private Sector to infuse competition
- Competition increases quality of service delivery
- Government should directly provide health and education grants or vouchers to the poor, which in turn would be redeemable at any recognized school or clinic
Plugging leakages
- To plug leakages , use Aadhar and Direct Benefit Transfers
Giving lesser discretion to Bureaucracy
- The existing Departmental Manuals and Codes should be reviewed
- Phrases like ‘left to the discretion of, ‘as far as possible’, etc should be avoided
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