The government has yet again lost an opportunity to fundamentally reform itself, says a new report released by the Public Affairs Centre, (PAC) on Saturday.

The report titled ‘India’s Citizen’s Charters: A Decade of Experience’ critically analyses one of the government’s signature reform initiatives: the Citizen’s Charter programme. The PAC in a first of its kind initiative, undertook a prelimnary assessment of Citizen’s Charters drafted by eight major departments in the government of Karnataka with substantial public dealings.

The review also critically evaluated the contents and quality of over 600 charters from across the country, assessed nearly 200 chartetrs in detail, interviewed hundreds of ordinary users and government officials.

The findings disturbing as it were found that none of the charters studied for the report fully complied with the guiding principles of the Citizen’s Charter initiative.

The report goes on to say that PAC analysts found some charters were just mere statements of the department’s vision or a thin outline of services provided.

The public affairs centre concluded that none of the charters qualified as a ‘Citizen’s Charter’ in the real sense of the term. Moreover the charters did precious little in terms of guarenteeing proper service delivery.

However, the Transport, Labour, Civil Supplies Departments and the KSPCB are the only government agencies in Karnataka that have found a place in a list of good charters scoring above 50 points.

Releasing the report, Mr Veerappa Moily, chairman, Administrative Reforms Committee (ARC), Government of India said 767 public service providers in central and state governments have implemented the charter so far.

“Yet the efficacy of the charter in India has remained in doubt. The second ARC will be dealing with the subject (Citizen’s Charter) under its Terms of Reference (TOR) - Citizen Centric Administration and freedom of information which is part of item 9 of the TOR, viz citizen centric administration. Hence the report prepared by thePAC will be a valuable input for our report” Mr Moily said.

Calling  red tapism and nepotism as cancers in public administration,the chairman of the ARC added the Right to Information (RTI) has  largely opened up institutional mechanisms to combat evils of civil administration.

“Many times rules and regulations have taken away the spirit of the constitution, making lives of citizens miserable” he rued. Quotimg from the study, he added that government agencies in some states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu appear to have provided better access to citizens charter.

Mr Moily concluded by saying that the Citizen’s Charter is a necessary tool in a constant struggle to make the citizens the soverigns and the government their servant.

PAC chairperson Dr Samuel Paul noted, “Most government agencies seem to have viewed the citizen’s charter program simply as an exercise in drafting a short document. It is much more.

It is an opportunity for government agencies to fundementally institute systemic changes to increase both accountability and transparency” he remarked. However, sounding an optimistic note, Mr Paul said evidence from the report suggests agencies that do display citizen’s charters take the initiative seriously, provide better quality service and have more satisfied users.

HIGHLIGHTS

*A strong impetus is needed from within the government through proactive leadership in order to make the initiative work

*Organisational restructuring and changes in business procedures required before formal adoption of citizens charter

* Use of external expertise can help to provide professional skills in this initiative

*Need to bench mark service standards using end-users feed back to make charter more robust

*Top level officials should be held accountable for success in implementing this reform

*Include civil society, citizens groups and NGO’s in charter process

NOT GOOD

Damning revelations

When benchmarked against international design criteria, no charter was rated as ‘Very Good’ and 32 percent were ‘Good’.

Worse, 74 percent of end-users were unaware that a Citizen’s Charter existed. In fact, just 8 percent had ever seen and read such a charter in a government office. Officials too were cluless. Over 64 percent of officials interviewed were not trained in methods to implement a Citizen’s Charter.