United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

All vehicle owners need to visit the Transportation Directorate in their governorates in order to issue a new one-year-valid vehicle license. They also have to do a technical test to the vehicle in the directorate, but less repeatedly. A new private vehicle has to do the first test after 5years, then every 2years. While a new public vehicle has to do the first test after 3years, then every year.
The process of renewing a vehicle license forms a complicated obstacle in the Transportation Directorates because of the congestion caused by it. The number of vehicles registered in Syria is about 1.8million vehicles, which means that there are 1.8million processes for vehicle license renewal per year.
For example, the estimated number of daily transactions in Damascus directorate only is 1600, as the number of registered vehicles in it is 430,000vehicles, and the number of working days in the year is 270 days. This means too that there are 1600vehicle licenses to be printed, and 800 vehicles to be technically tested every day. And, this number tends to increase about 10% yearly.
The date of vehicle license renewal has become like a nightmare to all vehicle owners in Syria because of time waste and suffering related to this transaction. Furthermore, congestion could be a suitable environment for corruption and extortion. In addition, there are many indirect costs that are being paid by the government and citizens at the same time such as the cost of transportation to arrive to the directorate, fuel consumption, road depreciation, pollution, the cost of papers and prints… etc.
The Governmental Services Reform and Modernization (GSR) project, a part of UNDP, conducted a study about the above described case. Through analysis, the procedure has been returned back to its two major components, paying annual fees and technical test. In order to know the extent to which the previous fees were fair, the GSR team calculated Pearson Correlation Coefficient factor between taxes and vehicle luxury and found out that the level of this factor is medium. In other words, the previous fees reflected moderately vehicle luxury, and they did not reflect vehicle use at all making it difficult to apply frugal policies.
The project has discussed two solutions for Transportation Directorate services reform. The first one is to offer fees paying from different places including banks and their related channels, and to allow the private sector to participate in the technical test by establishing accredited test centers. This solution might be good, but it suffers from two drawbacks. The first one is that citizens still have to go to the bank to pay fees in case that they do not have credit cards and they cannot use other bank facilities such as ATMs and the web. Taking in consideration that bank branches are already crowded, adopting this solution may increase their congestion. The second drawback comes from the fact that the previous fees did not reflect vehicle use, making it difficult to apply frugal policies as mentioned earlier

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The solution aims to collect vehicle fees from fuel cost instead of annual vehicle fees and to cancel the processes of vehicle license renewal completely. Actually modern process is better than traditional one, but not having a process at all is better than having a modern one. However, it is difficult to apply this solution on the diesel vehicles as diesel is a vital substance that affects industry and food basket…. etc, and its price is government-subsidized. Therefore, it has been suggested to start with the gasoline (benzene) vehicles and leave diesel vehicles for a further step. Accordingly, the solution aims to collect additional fees on every liter of gasoline instead of annual vehicle fees, encourage the private sector to build technical test centers according to standards prepared by the Ministry of Transport, and issue a permanent vehicle license so there is no need to print it annually. This solution provides many benefits at the same time; it links vehicle fees with the consumption of public resources such as roads and environment and with the traffic jam. This relation was not reflected through the previous fees approach. Thus, the more the vehicle is used, the more the roads are depreciated and the more that will cause negative impacts on environment in terms of pollution and noise, as a result, it is logical to pay higher fees. On the other hand, the solution links between fees and engine capacity; the bigger the engine capacity is the more the vehicle will consume fuel and public resources, so higher fees will be paid. Additionally, the solution links between fees and vehicle technology; the more the vehicle is economical the lesser the fee will be paid. The adaptation of this solution leads to cancel license renewal processes for gasoline vehicles, which are more than 1.3 million processes annually. This will ensure citizen comfort because of canceling the process, and obvious and immediate decrease in congestion in the Transportation Directorates. That will give the chance to improve the quality of other provided services, and will reduce direct and indirect expenditures for the Ministry of Transport, other related governmental entities, and for citizens simultaneously. These expenditures could be the fuel used to arrive to the directorate to renew a license, papers consumed in the directorates, inks, etc. Moreover, the solution will directly cancel corruption, bribes, and the exploitation of congestion by some people in these directorates. The solution ends the relationship between citizens and employees regarding vehicle license renewal process, and it offers year-round payments of fees, every time gasoline is injected, which makes it easier for citizens. The solution lead to solve the issue of not paying fees, specifically for motorcycles that are not registered in order not to pay fees, and they are more than 1 million motorcycles. Now, these vehicles will pay fees through gasoline price, accordingly, there is no more reason to be not registered and that will lead to more organization to them.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The solution was offered to the Syrian Ministry of Transport through a study prepared by Malek Al Haddad and Samah Haidar and conducted by the Governmental Services Reform and Modernization (GSR) team, a part of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the solution was discussed many times at the Ministry of Transport and with the ministerial economic team that is led by the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, and it was also discussed through the media especially the interactive ones. The solution has been applied by issuing a presidential edict on the 24th of September 2010. Then, the new law has been immediately followed by the Syrian Ministry of Transport and other related ministries such as the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The idea of the solution was displayed through the media in September 2009 for the first time, and then it was discussed many times with different committees, and that helped to build a good base to apply this solution. According to the media and in the summer of 2010, more than 55% of vehicle owners supported this solution. This percent is considered high if it is taken in consideration that the solution is not conventional while any conventional solution may not face the same change resistance. The targets were to cancel more than 1.3 million procedures and all expenditures related to them, reduce congestion, link between vehicle fees and use in order to enable citizens to control these fees and vehicle use frugality (Pay as you drive). In addition, government can take benefit of these fees in order to apply different policies such as fighting corruption, organizing the vehicles that do not pay annual fees, and creating a new culture through which the owner of a private vehicle can realize that what they pay will support those who use public transport. One of the most important points that were discussed is that the increase in gasoline price should be equal to the previous paid fee in case the vehicle travels an average annual distance of 15000 km, and this increase should not bring any additional cost to most of vehicle owners, and it should not decrease the State Treasury revenue and not affect inflation. Therefore, the suggested increase was studied carefully and it took into consideration its impact on other economic sectors and food basket. The study answered a number of related issues such as taxes and fees for taxi cars, the social groups that will benefit from this solution, the impact of this solution on suburb’s residents, the transport cost of employees, workers, students, and agricultural products, the impact on industry, local tourism, economic growth and livelihoods, and locally-manufactured vehicles, and harmonization with development plans in Syria….. etc. The MoT and the study’s team took the initiative to explain all these issues in the ministerial meetings and the media. The study was approved in the ministers meeting on the 22nd of September 2010, and the president issued the new law on the 24th of September 2010.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The suggested solution was discussed with a number of government entities that are related to the work of Transportation Directorates such as Interior Ministry – Traffic Branches, the insurance companies representative, social insurance, Finance Ministry, petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry, Customs…..etc. Then, a draft of the law was prepared by a shared committee that has members from the Transportation Ministry and the team leader of the Governmental Services Reform project in the Transportation Ministry. Later, the solution was discussed with the ministerial economic committee formed from 9 ministers and led by Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs. The team of the GSR project answered all ministers’ inquiries using scientific methods that led to broaden the acceptance base of the solution inside the Ministers Council. After taking into consideration some of the ministries’ suggestions, the final version of the presidential edict was reached and it was issued on the 24th of September 2010.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
In general, change resistance is the most important obstacle facing any governmental reform process. This has different reasons, some of them are related to the individuals who exploit the current situation and resist any reform, other reasons are related to those who fear change because they do not have enough confidence and capability to go with it and they believe that change will affect their work, and there are those who refuse change for refusal’s sake and because they are used to a specific work method and they do not accept a new one. In our case, the main rejection was from the beneficiaries of the current situation, and this includes some people who are used to get illegal money through doing their tasks. The Governmental Services Reform (GSR) team suggested an incentive system to provide an additional source of income to encourage employees.. The solution was also rejected by Traffic Branches that were dependant on annual vehicle license renewal procedures to collect traffic violations. The same happened with insurance companies that linked vehicle license to their work so a vehicle license cannot be granted without an insurance contract and traffic violations clearance. In addition, the Finance Ministry rejected the solution because of the fear that the State Treasury revenue will decrease. It was proved that the revenue will not be only kept as it is, but it will even increase through collecting fees from non-registered vehicles, i.e. vehicles that do not pay fees, and for foreign vehicles visiting or crossing Syria. Furthermore, new solutions were suggested regarding compulsory insurance and traffic violations. In fact, the suggested solution has led other entities to reform their services and use technologies in order to make their services accessible to citizens, and this has pushed the services reform process forward.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The GSR team, of two consultants, was completely responsible of accomplishing the study (from June 2009 to August 2010). The team was supported by the project management in general, and by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) – Syria and the Transport Ministry. One of the suggested solution’s advantages is that it is easily applicable; it could be applied immediately when it is issued. It also ends 1.3 million processes immediately and transfers their fees and taxes to fuel price. Moreover, citizens will not need to visit Transportation Directorates unless they have to accomplish other processes such as attesting registration and buying and selling contracts, or doing a technical test which has become available by the private sector. It has been decided that there will be 100 technical test centers in Syria instead of 14 centers in 14 governorates, and all of them will be connected to one software system. GSR project has provided an analysis to all Transportation Directorates processes. It has also provided a suggestion that includes process reengineering with an overall vision to the new Transportation Directorates including the design of service delivery halls, the new organization structure, functional roles, a permission system, and an incentive system. The project has also provided a specification booklet to a new software system based on web technology and a centralize database that allows to generate indicators for policy and decision makers, and it also allows decentralization of the services delivered so a service can be accomplished from any place. The estimated cost of the study is around 100,000 $; the salaries of two experts in addition to the GSR administration's salaries, and the estimated cost of the software application is 300,000 $. The whole cost is equally paid by GSR project, a part of UNDP and SPC (State Planning Commission), and the Transport Ministry.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Collecting fees through fuel is fairer than the previous method in terms of the fact that the one who travels more will use the roads more and cause more environmental pollution and congestion, so they have to pay higher fees. Moreover, the one who has a vehicle with a high-fuel-consuming engine will pay higher fees, while the one who has an economical vehicle will pay lesser fees. This will create a new concept that links between fees and vehicle use, and it will encourage the use of public transport and car pooling. These fees can be collected easily and citizens can estimate them according to the car type and use. They can also be paid in batches, every time fuel is injected, and the relationship between employees and citizens will be ended. In addition, the fees can be changed easily. The suggested solution has led other entities, which depend on Transportation Directorates to do some of their work, to solve their problems quickly, and new technologies have played an important role to solve these relations. For example, the process of vehicle license renewal was related to paying traffic violations; the procedure date is considered to be the notification date of traffic violations. Now, Traffic Branches are on the road to apply solution for prompt notification of traffic violations few hours after violation happened without depending on the Transportation Directorates and that will help to decrease traffic violations. Moreover, Traffic Branches are working to facilitate the payment of traffic violations through banks and their channels like banks’ web sites and ATM devices. On the other hand, the procedure of vehicle license renewal required, in the past, a new insurance contract, but today this contract can be delivered through different channels such as the web with a delivery service to the owner’s address in any place in Syria. In other words, citizens do not need to move from one department to another to complete a process, and they do not need to use their vehicles, and that will save all indirect expenditures for citizens and government at the same time. The Transportation Ministers in Jordan and Cyprus knew about this Syrian experience and they were interested in transferring it to their countries. In fact, this experience can be transferred to all countries.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Reducing congestion in the Transportation Directorates has been the prompt result of applying the suggested solution through the presidential edict No.75 issued on the 24th of September 2010. That has been also reflected positively on vehicle owners, specifically taxi owners, who have been relieved from paying other fees and annual fees, and just paying the fees imposed on gasoline instead. The learned lessons from this experience can be listed as follows: - Interactive media helps reduce resistance to change to a large extent through answering all inquiries directly and clarifying unclear points. This issue resolves citizen worries and helps improve the study as well. - Partnership with the private sector in order to deliver some services, such as technical test, has a positive impact from different points of views. It opens the door for a new work area in the market, accordingly, providing more job opportunities and revenue in the labor market, dividing congestion between a large numbers of centers, and giving some responsibility to the private sector to maintain technical readiness of the vehicle. - Dynamic fees, related to operation, raise citizen awareness about dealing with fees and taxes. In general, this type of fees provides comfort to vehicle owners for many reasons such as the ability to control these fees and the ability to pay them in batches. It is useful to mention that no one, before this study was published, calculated their annual driving distance and the extent to which it is proportional to fuel consumption. After this study, it becomes normal for vehicle owners to talk about the annual distance and how much taxes they have to pay after issuing the edict. Thus, frugality in vehicle use means frugality in annual taxes. - Not having a process at all is better than having a modern one that could be provided using different technologies or well-equipped centers. New technologies can solve many problems; however, analyzing business processes and reengineering them have the most important role to achieve proper service delivery. - Reducing congestion helps improve the quality of other provided services, cleanse and update a new database with a better reliability, and generate indicators for policy makers taking into consideration that “incommensurables cannot be managed”. - The political will for change has a major role in pushing the change process. There is no doubt that GSR team answered all the questions and worries of citizens and government, but, at the end, there are some people who reject for rejection’s sake, and here appears the decisive role of decision maker. - Finally, this approach will help build a new concept that depends on economical use of vehicles, more use of public transport, and car pooling. The study also suggests allocating a part of the revenue to support public transport, leading citizens to realize that they pay fees in order to achieve clear and specific targets, and that will raise the level of awareness related to fees and taxes in general.


Institution Name:		Ministry of Transport
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Yarob Badr
Title:		Minister
Telephone/ Fax:		011-3316840
Institution's / Project's Website:		011-3323317
E-mail:		ajoukhadar@undpprojects.sy
Address:		Damascus
Postal Code:
City:		Damascus
State/Province:
Country:		Syria

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information