Governments not seeking citizen feedback on public service quality

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Only 43% of the general public in six Western Balkan countries believe that doing business with their public administration has become easier, according to one of the findings of a comprehensive research conducted within the WeBER project.

The "Public Opinion Survey on Administrative Services in the Western Balkans" is the first regional survey dedicated to service delivery, covering Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia.

When it comes to bureaucracy in public administration, 48% of citizens across the Western Balkans believe that their governments have made attempts or initiated efforts to simplify administrative procedures for citizens and businesses in the past two years. The majority of citizens in Kosovo (57%) and Serbia (55%) share this view, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it stands at 28%.

- Generally speaking, the survey data reveals significant variations between individual Western Balkan countries regarding citizens' perceptions of different aspects of service delivery, but the pressing challenge and one of the surprising findings of this research is the apparent lack of mechanisms that allow citizens to provide feedback on the quality of services they receive from the state - says Milena Lazarevic, Program Director of the Centre for European Policy from Belgrade, project coordinator.

Only about a third of citizens across the region confirm that their administration has sought feedback on how to improve administrative services in the past two years – ranging from 13% in Bosnia and Herzegovina to 44% in Albania. One-third of respondents from the region agree that, as users of public services, they have the opportunity to send feedback on the quality of services they receive – from 15% of citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina to 38% in Kosovo.

- If there are no feedback mechanisms, governments cannot know what citizens think about existing services and how to improve them. It should be emphasized that citizens, as taxpayers, finance these services, while the research shows that governments in the region often do not care about citizens' needs and citizens' trust - stated Anida Šabanović, researcher for the Weber project at the Foreign Policy Initiative BH.

The survey data also revealed a low level of public awareness about the availability of e-services across the region, ranging from 19% in Bosnia and Herzegovina to 53% in Macedonia. Only 35% of respondents who are aware of e-services in their countries claim to have "always" succeeded in obtaining the service they requested online in the past two years. This percentage varies from 23% in Albania to 47% in Serbia.

Regarding the inclusivity of service delivery monitoring, only a quarter (26%) of citizens agree that citizens or civil society are involved in monitoring services. The highest approval rate comes from Albania (35%), and the lowest from Bosnia and Herzegovina (11%).

- The survey results are useful for the governments of all countries in the region as they point to some of the biggest problems concerning service delivery systems. In general, authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in the region, should enhance efforts to reduce bureaucracy and improve service delivery systems, as well as monitoring processes by civil society organizations and citizens - stated Anida Šabanović.

The project to improve the capacity of civil society to monitor public administration reform in the Western Balkans – WeBER – is a three-year project funded by the European Union and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The general goal of WeBER is to increase the significance, participation, and capacity of civil society organizations and media in the Western Balkans to advocate for and influence the design and implementation of public administration reform (PAR).

The WeBER project is implemented by the Think for Europe Network (TEN), a network comprising Western Balkan think tanks engaged in public policy research in the field of European integration. The coordinator of the WeBER project is the Centre for European Policy (CEP) from Belgrade; in BiH, the project is implemented by the Foreign Policy Initiative BH, while the Centre for European Policy (EPC) from Brussels provides partner support in implementation.

Members of the TEN network include the Foreign Policy Initiative BH (VPI BH) from Sarajevo, the Centre for European Policy (CEP) from Belgrade, the European Policy Institute (EPI) from Skopje, the Alternative Institute (IA) from Podgorica, the Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS) from Pristina, and the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) from Tirana.