United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

The Department of Lands, which is an organization under the Ministry of Interior, has major responsibility with protecting land rights of the people who apply for transaction concerned with land and immovable property through the service of registration of rights and juristic acts under the Civil and Commercial Code and the Land Code, in order to maintain the security of right in land and an efficient service delivery. The procedures of service delivery must be undertaken in accordance with prescribed law, regulations, and orders to prevent the damage, which may occur and to secure right in land of eligible landholders. The registration of mortgage is the procedure that the owners of land or building register the land or building as a guarantee in order to borrow money or guarantee of debt to a mortgagee which is a lender or financial institution. For registration of mortgage, in the budget year 2005 there were 970,000 cases or approximately 3,707 cases/day. The Department of Lands has developed a strategy to improve service delivery by reducing the processes and duration of work performance in 880 land offices through out Thailand, where the competent officers had to verify the correctness in all the processes of transaction, to shorten the processes and duration of work performance, which led to faster service delivery in order to meet customer satisfaction.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Department of Lands improves service delivery on the mortgage procedure by reducing from 8 processes to 5 processes resulting the decreasing of duration of performance 71 % from 4 hours to a work performance time at 1 hour 9 minutes, customer satisfaction is increasing

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Thai fiscal year 2006 (from 1 October 2005 to 30 September 2006)

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 mortgage procedure is the procedure where the Department of Lands provide service delivery to the owners of land or building in registering the land or building as a guarantee in order to borrow money or guarantee of debt to a mortgagee which is a lender or financial institution. The validity by law of registration and contract must be made in front of a competent officer. 1. The previous procedure of registration of right and juristic act, for the type of mortgage in Land Office, before the changing there are 8 processes, 4 service counters and 4 hours of implementation as follows; First counter 1. Landowners lodge the application form, the public relations officers verify the documents, record in the inventory and distribute queuing card. Second counter 2. The investigation officers receive the application form, investigate, verify dealing file and land right document, record in the inventory and prepare the fees, taxes, and stamp duties. 3. The competent officer verify any caveat Third counter 4. The cashiers collect the fees, taxes, and stamp duties and deliver receipt to the applicant 5. The officers prepare the contract and update the registration index 6. The investigation officers call the two parties to sign their names in the contract and relevant documents Fourth counter 7. The competent Land Office signs his/her name for registration and seal 8. The investigation officers deliver the land right document and contract to the land owner 2. The developed procedure of registration of right and juristic act, for the type of mortgage in Land Office, there are 5 processes, 4 service counters and 3 hours of implementation as follows; First counter 1. Landowners lodge the application form, the public relations officers verify the documents, record in the inventory and distribute queuing card. Second counter 2. The investigation officers receive the application form, investigate, verify dealing file, land right document, caveat and prepare the fees, taxes, and stamp duties. Third counter 3. The cashiers collect the fees, taxes, and stamp duties and deliver receipt to the applicant 4. The officers prepare the contract and update the registration index Fourth counter 5. The competent Officer calls the two parties to sign their names in the contract then sign his/her name for registration, seal and deliver the land right document and contract to the land owner

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The priorities and purposes of the improvement of service to customer in the procedure of mortgage are as follows; 1. For public interests 2. For development of better service delivery 3. For transparency implementation in order to informthe clear processes and duration which could verify in every steps to all customer 4. For establishing the standard of mortgage procedure 5. For reducing processes and time to facilitate the customers of the land office

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The strategies of improvement of mortgage procedure are as follows; 1. Specify the process clearly as well as improve process and time as appropriate 2. Emphasis in house training to increase efficiency and skill of the competent officer 3. Build up service mind of the officers continually 4. Encourage private sector to participate in preparing the application form and contract 5. Introduction the computer to assist in implementation

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
1. The Department of Lands has designed clear and fair procedures and also apply information technology or data base system, which led to faster service. The officers could decrease duration of work performance from 4 hours to 3 hours or actually work performance is 1 hour 9 minutes which is 71.14% time decreasing. 2. The customers satisfy in service delivery. There are many land offices which introduced the automatic queuing system. The officers have been trained and are capable to give advises or explanation to customers. For all these, the overall of customers’ satisfaction is 82.57%. 3. The land offices have been developed and they facilitate customers in many aspects as follows; 3.1 The quality of service delivery meets the standard. The officers have knowledge, skill, and polite and gentle manner in servicing. 3.2 The land offices use automatic and manual queuing for fair and transparency procedures. 3.3 The service areas always clean and the principle of 5’ S was adopted 3.4 The land offices provide fundamental facilities to the customers including drinking water, coffee, television and newspaper. 4. Deconcentration from the executive to the lower officers by empowering the competent officers to registering right and juristic act. Set hierarchy of work, which the relevant officers could make a decision in every work procedures. 5. Promoting and exchanging of knowledge by training staff, promoting of knowledge management and work coaching continuously 6. Set up public hearing system and answer the customers’ complaint letter. 7. People could easily access to the Department of Lands’ information,i.e. Department of Lands’ website at www: dol.go.th and other information media. 8. The customers have alternative of services or options, i.e service during lunch break, pre-appointment for registration or allowing applicants to lodge their application through any provincial or branch land office.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
For the improvement of mortgage procedures, the Department of Lands has published a guidebook of work performance procedures which stipulate the regulation for practicing in land offices through out Thailand and put up notification in land offices in order to disclosing to customers. The Department of Lands headquarters also monitors and supervises periodically the implementation of land offices including the statistical recording of duration work performance, providing at questionnaires to indicate the customers’ satisfaction in the service of mortgage. The customers could participate by giving recommendations or suggestion which will be used as a plan for improving the service delivery.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The Department of Lands has improved the service delivery in the procedures of mortgage by announcing the reducing of procedures and decreasing duration of service to 30-40%. But in fact the actual work performance showing that all land offices could shorten the duration of work performance up to 71.14% as average. For the overall, customers satisfaction with the improvement of mortgage procedures, it is 82.51%. From the report on monitoring and evaluation of work processes, which it was conducted by a university research unit in National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), reflecting that land offices have passed the assessment criteria. Resulting, all land offices received the award for excellent of overall procedure in service delivery from Office of the Public Sector Development Commission. The procedures of mortgage become benchmarks and best practices for other government agencies to applying as a model in improving service delivery.


Institution Name:		Department of Lands
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Wanna Rakyao
Title:		Director of Land Titling Project Office
Telephone/ Fax:		622 222 0799
Institution's / Project's Website:		622 225 9872
E-mail:		wanna@dol.go.th
Address:		No. 2 Phra Phiphit Road, Phra nakorn
Postal Code:		10200
City:		Bangkok
State/Province:		Bangkok
Country:		Thailand

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