| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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The initiative is innovative for various reasons, particularly:
It builds a bridge between President and the nation, and eliminates all barriers in government-society interaction using ICT as a new approach in governance where complex processes and hierarchies exist. Previously ICT has not been used in government sector in such extent as to help make political decisions, and conduct reforms based on analytic data obtained from PCS;
Simple and multichannel access to the PCS allows applicants from various background, income and literacy level to file their appeals;
Social media was widely used to communicate with public on this initiative, make announcements, describe progress, and report the results, collect peoples’ opinion. This increased trust in government commitment for a change and increased participation of citizens in other areas of public life;
In addition, GoU and people are able to monitor the process of handling complaints by ministries and government agencies in real-time. The problem or issue cannot be accepted as solved unless the applicant agrees.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The initiative was initiated and coordinated by the President and implemented by the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications (Ministry of ICT). The PCS was introduced in July 2013 and received more than 204 thousand complaints from citizens and entrepreneurs in three and a half years. In September 2016, when the Prime Minister launched the second phase of PCS the system received about 486 thousand complaints and suggestions in less than 5 months.
During the initial stage of PCS operation, the number of complaints and suggestions received online amounted at around 140 thousand or 68% of total number and through the call centers - about 64 thousand or 32% of total. In the second stage when the office of the Prime Minister took over administration of the initiative and additional channels were introduced for conveniences of various target groups, the numbers changed: about 235 thousand (48%) of appeals were send through website, 214 thousand (44%) through call center and about 37 thousand (8%) through mail. It should be noticed that establishing accesses through Internet, phone call and mail, and bilingual approach allowed the initiative affect more people, increased participation of people in government’s decision making, economic and social life, including the poorest and the most vulnerable people.
In the initial stage of the Project only 29% of all applicants were women and nowadays this number reached 55% of total applicants, this shows how the initiative affected women’s participation in decision-making process, and in protecting their interests.
Moreover, 43% of all appeals were received from unemployed people, 17% from retired people, about 4% complaints received from students, which also indicates how the PCS contributes to solving problems and creating opportunities for unemployed and the most vulnerable groups.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The first phase of the initiative was aimed at establishing legal framework and set up a pilot implementation mechanism. The implementation mechanism introduced in July 2013 consisted of online submission form incorporated into the public e-services portal, and a call center. Almost at the same time, the Law “On appeal from individuals and legal entities” was adopted that gives individuals and legal entities the right to petition authorities in the form of statements, proposals, and complaints. The purpose of the law is to regulate the petitioning process, describe rights and responsibilities, procedures and timelines. The law sets up a solid background for establishing understanding among the government officials of their obligations and among citizens of their right to communicate with the government.
During the first phase, all government agencies were autonomously responsible for organizing, handling and monitoring work on grievance resolution. This phase was crucial in establishing among government officials a culture of two-way dialogue with citizens. At the same time, this phase was instrumental in shaping citizens’ engagement in public affairs. The result was not uniform among different government agencies, while some were effectively resolving complains, other were lagging behind. Despite its success in laying ground for a complaint management system, assessment of initial phase demonstrated low level of commitment among government agencies for a change and as a result mistrust among public.
The second phase of the project was guided by a strong political will from the top management of the county. Coordination of work was supervised and monitored by the Office of Prime Minister and later transferred to the Office of the President. In the second phase of Public Complaint System implementation the GoU set up the following targets: to raise the take-up by the citizens to a new level, improve accountability of the government officials and increase overall effectiveness of the system. In order to achieve that the following actions were formulated:
1. Establish a whole-of government approach in operating the system;
2. Introduce monitoring mechanisms to closely track compliance by government agencies;
3. Build an information system for increased efficiency;
4. Introduce new channels of obtaining feedback from citizens.
As an effort to widen the scope of target audience and reach most vulnerable groups of population several new channels were introduced. In 24th of September, 2016 GoU established a single portal called a “Virtual reception of Prime-minister” (pm.gov.uz), which was later transferred to President and renamed to “Virtual reception of President”. In addition, the project allows filing complaint using a hot line or visiting the Councils of the regional party organizations UzLiDeP (Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party).
In order to streamline work on filing, reviewing, monitoring complaints system the Ministry of ICT was in charge of developing an information system for complaints management. The System receives complaints and suggestions from citizens and entrepreneurs via phone, online or paper, records them, and transfers them to respective ministry. The responsible ministries or government agencies solves the problem and sends report through the system to the Working Group within the deadline set in the law. Through the Public Complaint System, the Working Group can monitor and evaluate in real-time the whole process, which allows increasing transparency of activities of ministries and government agencies that provide public services.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The President’s Office initiated the Project, besides several ministries and government organizations, such as the Ministry of ICT, General Prosecutor’s Office, Cabinet of Ministers were involved in designing, developing and implementing the initiative. The management of project is entrusted to the Ministry of ICT and the action Minister Mr. Sh.H. Shermatov acts as a coordinator. There was established a special department within the President’s Office which is in charge of monitoring activities within PCS.
In addition, the government regularly organizes expert group meetings in order to discuss and exchange ideas with individuals, business community, CSOs, activists, international organizations on how to improve the complaint system further.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The first and main achievement of the initiative is increasing accountability of ministries and government organizations. The Project provides transparency of government institutes, allows increased e-participation and inclusiveness of the people thus contributing to the 16th goal of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions”.
It was also successful in providing equal opportunities for both men and women. The statistical data of the Project illustrates that more than 55% (about 260 thousand) of applicants in the framework of the PCS are women, and in 9 out of 14 regions of Uzbekistan women are more active than men.
In addition, the Project addresses issues of universal access to healthcare facilities and promoting quality public healthcare, it contributes to the well-being of people, including the poorest and most vulnerable groups, which corresponds to the next SDG “Good Health and Well-being - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. There are more than 25 thousand (5.7% of all applications) applications related to the area of healthcare.
Many appeals that found their resolution were addressing the issue of quality municipal services such as utilities, housing and land issues, which echoes the SDG “Sustainable Cities and Communities - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. There are about 110,6 thousand (25,3%) complaints and suggestions received from citizens and entrepreneurs related to local services, which shows concern and need to change current local governance system.
The PCS covers all spheres of society, including education. There were about 14.5 thousand (3.3%) applications that addressed issues in public education sector of the country. This serves as a serious trigger for the government to improve this spheres which fits into the UN’s SDG of “Quality Education – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote opportunities for all”.
Moreover, the following factors ensured success and effectiveness of the complaint system: a) it was easily accessible and simple to use for citizens, simple to invoke, with the stages clearly set out; b) responsibilities of government organizations were clearly allocated; c) the response timeframe was short, offering prompt action and speedy resolution according to pre-determined time limit; d) it was objective, including provision for review and investigation.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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Some government organizations, instead of solving grievances filed by citizens and entrepreneurs, abused their authority and falsely reported solving problems. A milti-layer system of monitoring and control was set consisting of the special working group under the President’s Office and General Prosecutor’s Office, which was in charge of taking actions in cases of fraud and abuse of power.
Despite positive resolution of grievances, there was no confidence and trust in the PCS. Because people did not know if the system worked, therefore the project managers improved public relations strategy, which became a crucial solution of this obstacle. Social networks and mass media were used to provide anonymized examples of complaint cases solved in the framework of PCS. Media products were prepared describing the Project, “how to” guides and evidence of its effectiveness.
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