Assessment of Citizens’ Charter Implementation Status in Oromia Region of Ethiopia: The Case of Selected Regional State Bureaus

Abstract

It is believed that a citizen charter is necessary to bridge governance dynamics with citizen interest. The Ethiopian government has introduced the citizens’ charter (CC) scenario as a new reform to improve the civil service delivery. However, some empirical evidences indicate that though the new reform is introduced, the civil service delivery effectiveness is inhibited by many administrative bureaucracies. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the concrete contribution of the citizens’ charter to enhance the quality of service delivery in the selected bureaus of Oromia regional state of Ethiopia. Relevant data were collected both from primary and secondary sources. Findings indicate that the citizens’ charter contribution to service delivery in the selected regional state bureaus was found low. Majority of service providers do not have enough knowledge of CC contents and capacity building was not organized on regular bases. Even though office supplies are found sufficient, there is still lack of adequate skilled personnel. It also indicated that service delivery transparency and accountability were ineffective. Feedback mechanism was found inadequate. Concerning the service quality, service processing time was not maintained as the stated service standards of the charter and better performers are not rewarded, Celebration of success is almost not practiced. Hence, the reality of the citizen charter concepts and goals need to be well communicated, follow-up should be in place to make uniform the application of the new practice, civil service leaders and process owners have to internalize and play their active role in leading the practice of CC.

Keywords: Citizen’s charter, Public Service Delivery, Service Provider, Customer