Implementation of Citizen Charter in Service Delivery System:A Study of District Administration Office, Ilam

Abstract

The citizen's charter informs the public about the availability of public services. It includes information on the commitment of the agency towards the public with regard to standard and time frame for providing services, scope for choice and consultation of service delivery, non-discrimination, grievance redress, and demonstrated value for money. The Charter also seeks to assure accessibility and courteous services.Generally, a citizen's charter includes the vision and mission of the agency and its operations, details on standards, quality, time frame for delivery, and redress mechanisms.The citizen‟s charter, as one of the quality assurance strategies in the public sector put forward by New Public Management theorists, has been introduced in Nepal with the view of improving the quality of governmental service delivery, increasing the level of citizens‟ satisfaction and enhancing efficiency of bureaucratic apparatus at the local level.The objective of this study was to map whether this so called tool of good governance is successful in its intention. This thesis defines the Charter programme and tries to evaluate its impact in terms of service delivery. The research uses both qualitative and quantitative method for finding out this objective. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used to get comprehensive picture of the reality. The researcher contacted with different participants DAO officials and Citizens to gather information. Besides, officials’ records, documents and other secondary sources were utilized.The concluding remark is that citizen‟s charter is not a myth for improving the service quality at the local level rather it is a realistic approach to improve the quality, efficiency, and productivity of municipal service provisions.