Public service progress THE CABINET Office has published, by way of press advertisement, a list of 15 public sector organisations and two individuals who have been recognised and rewarded for improving their customer service over the 2000/2001 fiscal year. The agencies range from police to post office, from hospital to revenue office, utility company to statutory bodies. The Government, over the last several years, has been labouring in a rather low-keyed manner to improve service delivery to customers. A Citizen's Charter project has been running since 1994 and a Public Sector Modernisation Programme in the same time-frame, with very little visible results beyond a few agencies held up as models. One of the surest tests of the quality of service and of the level of customer satisfaction is the number and types of complaints received. Even among the flagship pioneer agencies for improved customer service the level of complaints about quite basic things, which media receive on a daily basis, remains quite high. The Registrar General's Department, for example, which is a high-profile awardee for creativity and innovativeness, has been unable to meet consistently its own delivery schedules, much to the annoyance of a long-suffering public. Still, the award-winning agencies must be congratulated for improvements made; each incremental improvement matters. Organisations were assessed by a panel of judges based on a number of criteria, including adherence to the standards in their Citizen's Charter. Very importantly, there was some participation by members of the public in making nominations for consideration and by participation in two customer service surveys conducted by STATIN. For, at the end of the day, it is the public perception of and satisfaction with the quality of service which really matters. The Cabinet Office, which is the co-ordinating agency for Government's Customer Service Improvement/Citizen's Charter programme, is still a long way from meeting its aim of "transforming the public sector into a more customer-oriented, efficient, effective and accountable service", and there is no time-table. But the steps which some agencies have taken in this direction, often under difficult circumstances, are worthy of recognition. The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
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