Automation of Municipal Services Complaint Management at Local Governments under Punjab Cities Program

Punjab Cities Program (PCP) is a flagship program of the Government of Punjab aligned with the World Bank Group’s Pakistan Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) FY15-20. The purpose of the program is to strengthen the urban management and service delivery in local governments (Municipal Committees) of 16 selected cities including Bahawalnagar, Burewala, Daska, Gojra, Hafizabad, Jaranwala, Jhang, Jhelum, Kamalia, Kamoke, Khanewal, Kot Addu, Muridke, Okara, Vehari & Wazirabad. Punjab Municipal Development Fund Company (PMDFC) is a technical arm of the Local Government & Community Development (LG&CD) Department to implement PCP in partner local governments to capacities them to deliver their mandates. The project has benefitted an estimated total population of 4.1 million in partner cities with the initiation of various infrastructure sub-projects including Water Supply Schemes, installation of Sewerage and Storm Drainage Systems, Waste Water Treatment Plants, Urban Roads, Parks, Parking Sheds and Street Lights. Moreover, backstopping support is also provided for the implementation of E-governance systems, Environmental and Social Management, Financial Management and Audit, Investment Planning and Budgeting, Transparency and Accountability, Procurement and Contract Management as well as provision of extensive technical assistance and training. Such initiatives have greatly improved the delivery of local government responsibilities such as infrastructure development, regulation, municipal service delivery, transparency, protecting the local environment, and upholding citizen rights.

Municipal services complaint management is one of the obligatory functions of local governments to redress citizen grievances regarding municipal service delivery. The Institutional Strengthening section of the PMDFC under E-governance initiatives automated the manual process of municipal services complaint management into a web-based Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) in partner cities. Prior to the automation, the municipal service complaints redressal process was manual and complaint registers were maintained at Municipal Committees. The manual process is not only prone to error, wear and tear, manipulation, and misplacement of records, but costly and time-consuming as well. The automation process led to the establishment of GRM at partner local governments with the development of the state-of-the-art "Baldia Shikayaat” web dashboard and application which enables citizens to online register and redress their grievances pertaining to municipal services. Besides web-based platforms, a compliant cell has also been established in each Municipal Committee which facilitates citizens to register walk-in complaints on the "Baldia Shikayaat” web dashboard. Both web-based platforms provide multiple features to make the complaint redressal process paperless and agile. For instance, the complaint cell in charge is responsible for registering online municipal services complaints related to water supply, sewerage, solid waste management, streetlights, roads, parks, occupational safety, regulations, and social and environmental.

Implementation of an online automated GRM resulted in a reliable, an agile, convenient and paperless complaint management system for citizen with reduced complaint handling time, cost, and errors.

Baldia Shikayaat web dashboard has eliminated manual registration of complaints, record keeping, and issuance of complaint receipts. All complaints and their record are maintained online and a unique code is given to each complainant for tracking complaint status. Login Accounts have also been created for official levels such as municipal officer Infrastructure and Services, Finance, Regulations, and Planning. Complaints automatically direct to their Login Accounts if they relate to their respective area of functionality and can be simultaneously viewed and tracked online and complaint status can be updated once resolved. The Chief Officer overall review the GRM with his Login Account. The whole process is online, automated, and paperless which resulted in efficient and robust complaint management with reduced printing, documentation, and complaint handling time and cost and errors. Moreover, Citizens can easily inquire about the status of their complaints through unique complaint tracking codes, mobile, and CNIC numbers. The dashboard provides features to update and add new municipal services as well as city locations such as Mohallas and Towns which comes in handy while registering the complaints.

Besides Dashboard, the Baldia Shikayyat web application is also developed for citizen convenience to launch municipal services complaints through an Android phone with the help of application regardless of visiting the complaint cell. Citizens can easily create an account with the help of National Identity Card number or E-mail address to have an access on multiple features such as complaint launch, history, resolution status, and notifications. Once the complaint is resolved, a notification is received from the complaint cell incharge regarding complaint resolution on user's mobile. Facility of uploading picture is alaos available for user along with the provision of details of municipal complaints. Users have options to select the sector, complaint type, Devision and District while lodging the complaint. Detail of total number of complaints, complaints in process and reolved is provided along with user feedback survey. Inaddition, a facility for voice messages is provided to the users to launch audio complaints. This facility is particularly for those people who can not read and write or have limited knowledge of operating the application. This feature enables them to record municipal complaints through voice messages to be sent to the concerned authorities which decode the message and entertain their complaint.

Around 30,000 municipal services complaints have been received and resolved through GRM which is an indication of successful facilitation of citizen with an automated complaint management system

GRM provides citizens with an access to launch the Right to Information (RTI) application as well. Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013 provides citizens a fundamental right to file RTI requests to Public Information Officers (PIO) to have access to information in all matters of public importance subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions imposed by law. A manual RTI register is maintained at the PIO office, and the automation of GRM allows citizens to launch an online RTI request. Multiple training sessions were conducted for technical and official staff to implement GRM in local governments in programmed cities. Awareness campaigns were also initiated to motivate citizens to utilize GRM. Information Technology Officers already deployed at local governments assigned the tasks to facilitate the implementation process and provide hands-on training to the citizen with the help of technical staff to install and use applications for registering municipal services complaints. Computer generated reports regatrding municipal services complaints can be easily accessed for review and decision-making. The system provides an option to get the details of municipal complaints launched and resolved on a daily, weekly, fortnightly, and yearly basis. Moreover, a customized report generation option is also available if reports are required to be accessed for a specific time period. Around 30,000 municipal service complaints have been received and resolved through GRM which is an indication of the successful implementation of an automated, agile, and paperless municipal services complaint management system at partner local governmrnts.  

Contributor: Muhammad Qasim, a Program Officer Institutional Strengthening at PMDFC and can be reached at qasimawan@ymail.com