The aim of the CiRM is to enable citizens to have quick and easy access to information generated by different government ministries every day.
The state doesn’t have a reputation for being customer-service driven, but should it embrace a CiRM, it will make a huge improvement in service delivery.
Simply put, this is an effort at all levels of government to respond quickly and accurately to citizen inquiries for answers.
Any CiRM aims to foster closer, more effective and efficient working relationships, to better anticipate and meet citizen needs and to develop a more detailed working understanding of what citizens want from those who serve them.
For instance, The USA Services, a presidential e-Government initiative, is related to citizen relationship management.
It provides accurate information rapidly about how the government works.
It also acts as clearing house for misdirected phone calls and e-mails, and offers a contact centre to provide automated responses to citizen inquires by phone and over the Internet.
A typical CiRM would offer a built-in grievance redressal mechanism for tracking complaints and giving feedback, ensuring that nothing falls through the system.
Calls, issues and service requests are automatically categorized, prioritised and routed, thus improving response times while simultaneously providing personalized responses.
In addition to this, round the clock access to self-service information, citizens can register for Events, make online payments and even schedule meetings with specific staff members.
But rolling out a CiRM solution across the whole Government is not an easy task.
Not even the most developed countries have managed to do this effectively.
Traditionally, Government ministries have operated in silos, making it difficult to integrate not just information but systems and processes.
To demonstrate the viability of the proposed CiRM, the Kenya ICT Board selected government ministries and private sector partners who will pilot a service that will allow citizens to access government services through a single access telephone number.
The ICT Board proposed to pilot with selected agencies in Government that are likely to produce immediate results.
Concept note
These include; the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Immigration Department, the Company Registry, the Kenya Police (Occurrence Book) and the Ministry of Health.
This process will however require a cabinet concept note to be prepared and approved before the pilot project can roll off the mill.
Should this project take off, it could herald a new dawn of public service experience.
The proposed implementation model for this project is a public-private partnership with the private sector playing a leading role.
This is a good project but runs the risk of ownership wrangles between government agencies; a clear concept note with a management structure and operational detail will save it from being cannibalised.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Harry Hare
Quelle/Source: Business Daily Africa, 06.05.2010
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