WHAT’S THE POINT?
Hot off the press, behind the 2007 State of the Public Service Report, the Public Service Commission (PSC) has just released the third in its series of citizen satisfaction surveys: The Citizen Satisfaction Survey: Economic and Infrastructure Services Sector (September 2006).
It is an ill-conceived piece of research which is of little value to citizens or the state; and which, no doubt, cost the tax-payer a substantial amount of money to produce.
It’s the kind of survey that will be put in a person’s pigeon hole and still be there six months later.
The two previous, and far more helpful, such surveys were:
• Citizen Satisfaction Survey: Overview Report 2001/2002; and
• Citizen Satisfaction Survey: Overview Report of the Criminal Justice Sector (2005)
The most recent survey focuses on three departments: agriculture, land affairs and water affairs and forestry and on five particular services offered within each department (four in the case of water affairs and forestry).
Those services are:
Department of Agriculture:
• Breeding Certificates and Authorisations
• Import Permits
• Farmer Settlement
• Bursaries, Internships and Experiential Training
• Agricultural Engineering Services
Department of Land Affairs:
• Cadastral Surveys Information Supply Service
• Surveys and Mapping
• Restitution of Land Rights
• Land Reform
• Deeds Registration
Department of Water Affairs and Forestry:
• Billing of Major Water and Forestry Users
• Licensing of State Forest Land
• Authorisations for Water Disposal
• Authorisations for Water Use
In the foreword, chairperson of the PSC Prof S Sangweni states: “Since 2002 the Public Service Commission has gone directly to the citizens with the purpose of surveying their needs and expectations regarding service delivery” and concludes, “I trust that these findings will enable the above departments to bridge the gap between citizens’ expectations and actual service.”
At no point in the survey – even in a fairly detailed section on its methodology – does the PSC explain why those three departments were chosen, or those particular services, only that they were the result of much consultation and discussion.
In a country where departments like home affairs and local and provincial government are the cause of massive public dissatisfaction, why is the PSC undertaking research into how well the department of agriculture is providing breeding certificates?
No doubt agriculture, land affairs and water affairs and forestry do offer important services in terms of day-to-day service delivery – billing of major water use and land reform are two examples – but seen in a bigger context, where people can’t get identity documents, where municipal services are often way below par and where public transport is inadequate and run down, why is the Public Service Commission trying to determine whether or not citizens are satisfied with the licensing of state forest land?
The PSC only undertakes its citizen satisfaction survey once every two or three years. Indeed, the first one - Citizen Satisfaction Survey: Overview Report 2001/2002, which looked at the health, education, housing and social welfare departments - is already five years old. By the next time it does a survey, and if it doesn’t focus on departments like home affairs and/or local and provincial government, seven years will have passed. And, if it does focus on those departments, the next time it will look at the levels of citizen satisfaction with regard to those critical departments in the social development cluster will be in 2011.
Who does that help?
It is little surprise that, if one has a look at the results of the latest survey, all three departments do very
| Posted on 30/5/2007
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