SUMMARY ON MUNICIPAL CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTER TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED BY THE FOUNDATION FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM

Sofia , Bulgaria

7 January 2004

Pursuant to Bulgarian legislation, Municipalities are obliged to deliver a wide range of administrative services and information to their citizens. These include certificates for civic status, permits and licenses for urban planning, business, commerce and construction, etc.

In this respect the Bulgarian Municipal administrations have faced several major issues:

1. How to deliver services in the shortest term possible without allowing for subjective blunders by the staff and deliberate inaccuracies in the data?

2. How to organize the work process in a way that would best facilitate the citizens, i.e. design a procedure enabling request submission and receipt of ready documents at one place?

3. How to minimize personal contact between the customers and the municipal specialists who are immediately responsible for service delivery; avoid occasions of citizens being redirected from office to office, and instances of corruption and bureaucracy?

4. What information and management technologies should be used for the efficient administrative service delivery to the citizens?

The model for establishment of Municipal Customer Service Centers presents a viable solution to all these issues. It has been developed by FLGR team for innovative practices and is based on the experience of municipalities from Bulgaria, Central Europe and the USA. ...more...