(October 2008 - September 2009) : Master'S Programme in Urban Management and Development

MASTER’S PROGRAMME IN URBAN MANAGEMENT
AND DEVELOPMENT
(October 2008 – September 2009)
Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative:

A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter
Implementation in Naga City
Alvin Penaranda Principe

Philippines
Supervisor: Alberto Gianoli
UMD 5 Report number:

Rotterdam, September 2009
Summary
The past decades saw important changes at the sub-national levels not just in the realm of
technological advancements but also in arena of administrative and managerial
developments. Shifts in perspective as well as in approaches have begun to occupy the
discourses and debates in urban development and public administration. One such
approach intended to bring about reform in public service delivery is the citizen’s charter
initiative which have been given birth in United Kingdom and gained popularity not just
in adjacent countries in Europe, the Americas but also found its way in the shores of
South Asia and the Pacific. Citizen’s Charter is a document that spells out the
entitlements of citizens when it transacts with governments. It outlines the steps of
availing the services the organization offers including the standards by which the services
would be delivered.
This research aims to explore the factors associated in formulating, implementing and
institutionalizing citizen’s charter and determine the extent of its influence on
transparency, accountability and quality of public services. A case study was undertaken
in the City of Naga in the Philippines using office survey and client’s survey, with
respondents coming from the Local Civil Registry (LCR) and the Business Permit and
Licensing Division (BPLD) as well as key informant interview and focus group
discussion with selected key implementers and stakeholders. Desk review and field work
findings reveal the following main points that answer the research objective and
appurtenant research questions.
There was no single most important and comprehensive strategy or approach that is
useful in all stages of the citizen’s charter program. Analysis however reveals that
certain factors appear more dominant in distinct phases of the citizen’s charter. In the
conception of the charter, the institutional structure formed was found pivotal in
facilitating the crucial activities of the charter formulation. In the implementation phase
of the charter, the dominant factor that surfaced is the accessibility of information about
the charter to the greater public which was found not perfectly matching with the means
by which the target clients can be reached. While indeed it was commendable to have
begun utilizing electronic means to get in touch with the segments of the clients, it was
revealed that face to face transaction with frontliners in the service window was still the
most frequent source of information to clients. The capacity building on the other hand,
was found effective to those who have attended the trainings but there is still the concern
about the rest and for all in general who have not and desires a more programmatic skills
enhancement or attitude/behavioral modification program perceived helpful in the
performance of duties and functions. In the institutionalization phase of the charter, it was
found the local and national legislations were more than enough to guarantee the
charter’s sustainability. However, the findings disclose the absence of a systematic
evaluation of the citizen’s charter than already runs for almost a decade now.
There was a conscious effort on the part of the city government to be open and
transparent in the way they do things in their offices by producing the book form (Naga
City Citizen’s Charter) and electronic form (NetServe) of the charter but these efforts as
far as awareness of the citizens is concerned is not sufficient. Clients surveyed in the
study perceive that the requirements are clear and understandable. But the visible display
Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter iii
of procedures and process flows as well as applicable fees and charges would have to be
worked out for findings disclose not many of the clients notice them right away. The aim
of spreading/propagating the information about what can be expected of the services in
the city government service standards has not been fully achieved.
The accountability mechanisms established in support of the I-Governance Program

where the citizen’s charter is an integral part are innovative and pioneering but not all are
fully functional. There are a number of avenues by which citizens can express complaints
and feedback to the city government. The IT-based facilities include open phone
line/Text to the Mayor; TEXT Naga; the Community Forum in the city’s official website;
and the conventional feedback form or letter to the city government. What seems to work
very conveniently at this time is the Text to Mayor mode which is received directly by
the local chief executive. The least functional of these modes is the feedback form
attached at the end pages of the Naga City Citizen’s Charter which has not yielded a
striking register. There was no display of procedures how to complain within the city hall
premises but are found in the published form of the charter. The received complaints or
feedback from all these sources are acted upon independently by concerned offices.
Complaints are validated, remised employees are meted with appropriate sanction,
correction is done and an apology is relayed to aggrieved customers either by frontliners
themselves or the head of office. However, there is none as of yet a compensation
provided to appease a complaining client.
Both the clients and employees positively perceive the quality of services being rendered
by the city government. Services information are generally accessible because of its
availability in the internet however, the issue is no longer the content but the distribution
of the Naga City Citizen’s Charter to all households in the city. Services are
predominantly accurate and the openness of the city to be corrected is a welcome attitude.
A great majority of the clients perceived the courtesy, friendliness and accommodation
extended by frontliners. Clients perceive waiting areas are comfortable although
department heads think this is an opportunity for improvement whenever viably possible.
Clients perceive a fair treatment that does not distinguish nor discriminate. Least but still
positively perceived is the timeliness of services rendered.
The research highlights the transformative influence of citizen’s charter on the city’s
service delivery transparency, accountability, and quality.
The results of desk review and field assessment clearly point to a need to explore
innovative applications to sustain the gains of the institutionalization of the citizen’s
charter especially that it is embarking on its ninth year of implementation. Towards the
end, practical recommendations and considerations have been drawn along the following
themes: City Government Process Transparency; City Government Output
Accountability; and City Government Service Quality.
Keywords: Citizen’s Charter, Public Sector Reform Program, New Public

Management, Good Urban Governance
Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter iv

Acknowledgments
I wish to express my appreciation and gratitude to the following for being part of this
piece of accomplishment:
My supervisor, Dr. Alberto Gianoli, for providing guidance and valuable comments
during the preparation and finalization of the thesis;
The colloquium panellists Mr. Aloysious Bongwa and Dr. Anirban Pal, for those
clarifications and insightful comments;
My mentor, Dr. Yiping Fang, for the time spent discussing the initial proposal and for
generously providing thoughts and suggestions how to approach and enhance the draft
proposal and thesis;
My research assistants, Michelle and Bryan and Jen for the field work assistance in Naga
City and post-field work help;
My professors and lecturers, for sharing their expertise and knowledge; the IHS-
Programme Management, the Library Managers, and Course Bureau for all the academic
and logistics support;
The Netherlands Fellowship Program and Nuffic for the fellowship support;
My Filipino colleagues and friends in this UMD Course, Lee, Charmae and Aldrin for the
support, inputs and discussions; and also for those times spent going around and out
Netherlands; and to Lowela, for the encouragements and prayers;
My 2nd family, members of New Life Christian Fellowship namely Pstr. Andre and Sis.
Lydia Canlas; Tita Cristy; Tita Vicky; Ate Merly; Ate Lani, Ate Princess; Richard and
Susan; Ron; and Jan, for all the prayers and encouragements and for making me feel at
home away from home;
My UMD-5 Classmates, for those group work discussions and course paper preparations;
My officemates at the DAP Center for Governance and the Local Development Office for
their bon-voyage party and best regards;
My Mom and Dad, Ate Mylene, Maeden and the whole family, for their love and prayers;
The respondents/clients in Naga City especially Mayor Jesse Robredo and his department
heads and office chiefs for allowing the study to proceed; and for the time and sharing of
citizen’s charter experiences and insights; and
To the Lord Almighty for the grace, favour and blessings bestowed.
Maraming salamat po!
Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter v

Abbreviations and Acronyms
ARD-GOLD – Associates in Rural Development – Governance for Local

Development
ARTA - Anti-Red Tape Act
ATM - Automated Teller Machine
BOSS - Business One Stop Shop
BPLD-CTO - Business Permit and Licensing Division - City Treasurer’s Office
CC - Citizen’s Charter
CDC - City Development Council
CSC - Civil Service Commission
FGD - Focus Group Discussion
HRMO - Human Resource Management Office
KII - Key Informant Interview
IFI - International Finance Institutions
IRR - Implementing Rules and Regulations
LCR - Local Civil Registry
LGU – Local Government Unit
IT- Information Technology
MNCCI - Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce Incorporated
MOOE - Maintenance and Other Operating Expenditure
NCPC - Naga City People’s Council
NPM - New Public Management
PAC - Public Affairs Center
PES - Performance Evaluation System
PIB - Performance Incentive Bonus
PIP - Productivity Improvement Program
PSEP - Public Service Excellence Program
QSEP- Quality Service Excellence Program
RCS - Report Card Survey
SMS - Short Messaging System
SOCA - State of the City Address
TUGI - The Urban Governance Initiative
UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
3Rs – Reduce, Re-use, Recycle
5S – Sort, Sweep, Shine, Standardize, Sustain
Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter vi

Table of Contents
Summary ............................................................................................. iii
Acknowledgments ............................................................................... v
Abbreviations and Acronyms ........................................................... vi
Table of Contents .............................................................................. vii
List of Boxes........................................................................................ ix
List of Tables ...................................................................................... ix
List of Figures ...................................................................................... x
Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................... 1

1.1 Research Background .................................................................................... 1
1.2 Research Objectives and Questions ............................................................... 4
1.3 Research Relevance ....................................................................................... 5
Chapter 2: Literature Review and Analytical Framework ............ 7
2.1 Public Sector Management Reform ............................................................... 7
2.2 New Public Management ............................................................................... 7
2.3 Good Governance ........................................................................................ 11
2.4 The Consumer, the Client and the Citizen ................................................... 13
2.5 Some Findings from Citizen’s Charter ........................................................ 15
2.6 Theoretical Background and Analytical Framework ................................... 21
Chapter 3: Research Methodology.................................................. 23
3.1 Research Area .............................................................................................. 23
3.2 Research Framework ................................................................................... 23
3.4 Operational Definitions, Research Variables and Indicators ....................... 28
3.5 Validity and Reliability ................................................................................ 33
Chapter 4: Research Results and Analysis..................................... 36
4.1 Desk Review Findings ................................................................................. 36
4.1.1 Minimum Requirements Criteria.............................................................. 37
4.1.2 Grievance Redress Mechanism Criteria ................................................... 38
4.1.3 Citizen Friendly Criteria ........................................................................... 39
4.2 Field Work Findings .................................................................................... 41
4.2.1 Strategies and Approaches Employed in Formulating Implementing and
Institutionalizing the Citizen’s Charter .............................................. 41
4.2.1.1 Formulation of the Citizen’s Charter .............................................41
4.2.1.1.1 Institutional Structure..............................................................42
4.2.1.1.2 Legislation/Policy ...................................................................42
Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter vii
4.2.1.1.3 Top Leadership Support and Motivation ................................43
4.2.1.1.4 Resource Allocation ................................................................43
4.2.1.1.5 Participation ............................................................................44
4.2.1.1.6 Challenges and Obstacles Encountered ..................................46
4.2.1.1.7 Facilitating Factors..................................................................47
4.2.1.2 Implementation of the Citizen’s Charter........................................47
4.2.1.2.1 Awareness of the Frontline Staff ............................................47
4.2.1.2.2 Attitude of Frontline Staff.......................................................48
4.2.1.2.3 Capacity Building ...................................................................49
4.2.1.2.4 Systems Employed .................................................................50
4.2.1.2.5 Accessibility and Awareness .................................................50
4.2.1.2.6 Top Leadership Style ..............................................................52
4.2.1.2.7 Resource Availability............................................................53
4.2.1.3 Institutionalization of the Citizen’s Charter ...................................53
4.2.1.3.1 Presence of Policy ...................................................................54
4.2.1.3.2 Presence of Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanisms ............57
4.2.2 Openness and Accessibility of Information and Standards in Citizen’s
Charter................................................................................................ 59
4.2.2.1 Clarity and Understandability of Requirements ............................59
4.2.2.2 Display of Procedures and Process Flows .....................................59
4.2.2.3 Display of Fees and Charges..........................................................60
4.2.3 Accountability Mechanisms in Citizen’s Charter .................................... 61
4.2.3.1 Display of Identification ................................................................61
4.2.3.2 Presence of Functional Complaints/Feedback Mechanism ...........61
4.2.3.3 Presence of Functional Redress Mechanism..................................64
4.2.4 Perception of the Quality of Services in City Government ...................... 66
4.2.4.1 Customer’s Expectations ...............................................................66
4.2.4.2 Service Information Accessibility..................................................67
4.2.4.3 Service Accuracy ...........................................................................68
4.2.4.4 Service Pleasantness ......................................................................68
4.2.4.5 Service Area Comfortability ..........................................................68
4.2.4.6 Service Equality .............................................................................68
4.2.4.7 Service Timeliness .........................................................................69
4.2.4.7 Ratings on Effectiveness and Service Delivery Improvement ......70
4.3 Summary of Findings and Analysis ............................................................. 73
Chapter 5 ........................................................................................... 74
Conclusions and Recommendations................................................ 75

5.1 Summaries and Conclusions ........................................................................ 75
5.2 Recommendations ........................................................................................ 80
5.2.1 City Government Process Transparency .................................................. 80
5.2.2 City Government Output Accountability ................................................. 80
5.2.3 City Government Service Quality ............................................................ 81
References .......................................................................................... 83
Annexes .............................................................................................. 86
Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter viii
Annex A: Interview Guide for the Head of LCR and BPLD and Head of the CC
Task Force and other Officials ............................................................... 86
Annex B: Interview Guide for the Mayor .......................................................... 90
Annex C: Interview Guide for MNNCI and NCPC ........................................... 92
Annex D: Frontline Office Survey Questionnaire ............................................. 95
Annex E: Client Questionnaire .......................................................................... 99
Annex F: Client’s Suggestions to Improve Public Service Delivery ............... 103
Annex G: Staff’s Suggestions How the Office Can Better Deliver Services .. 105
List of Boxes
Box 1: Beginnings of a History: How Citizen’s Charter Came to be in the City of Naga ........ 3
Box 2: What the Mayor Says About the Charter: “it’s a way of engaging” ........................... 38
Box 3: What an Office Head Says About How the Standards Came About and the Processes
They Through: “all about the desire for service delivery improvement.” ........................ 42
Box 4: What MNCCI Says About the Gains of Institutionalizing the Citizen’s Charter in Naga
City: “three things.” ......................................................................................................... 44
Box 5: What NCPC Says About its Own Effort to Educate People on the Citizen’s Charter:
“to attain maximum people participation.” ...................................................................... 46
Box 6: What a Division Chief Says About Challenges and Obstacles Encountered:
“eventually overcame all these.” ...................................................................................... 47
Box 7: What an Office Head Says what Led the Citizen’s Charter Formulation and
Institutionalization: “confluence of factors” .................................................................... 47
Box 8: What the Mayor Says About the Charter Being Effectively Implemented: ................ 57
Box 9: What a Department Head Says about Performance Appraisal: “there is peer,
subordinate and client rating” .......................................................................................... 58
Box 10: What an Office Head says About Courtesy, Friendliness and Accommodating
Attitude of Public Servants: “service with a smile” ......................................................... 68
Box 11: What Office Head Says About What Else Can be Done to Further Improve Service
Delivery in Naga City: “awareness program” .................................................................. 71
Box 12: What an Office Head Says About Maintaining the Naga City Citizen’s Charter:
“difficult not to continue” ................................................................................................ 72
List of Tables
Table 1: NPM Principles and NPM Instruments ..................................................................... 10
Table 2: Research Dimensions and Applications .................................................................... 25
Table 3: Matrix of Research Objectives and the Data Gathering Techniques......................... 27
Table 4: Terms Definition and Operationalization .................................................................. 28
Table 5: Matrix of Input Variables, Indicators, Propositions and Sources of Data ................. 29
Table 6: Matrix of Outcome Variables, Propositions, Indicators and Sources of Data........... 31
Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter ix

Table 7: Client’s Knowledge of Invitation to Participate in the Development of .................. 46
Table 8: Staff’s Perceived Service Standards Expectations of him/her in Accomplishing Task
or Service ......................................................................................................................... 48
Table 9: Attitude of Frontline Staff towards Public Service and Work Environment ............. 49
Table 10: Types of Capacity Building Perceived by Frontliners Helpful to Work ................. 49
Table 11: Client’s Sources of Information How to Avail Services in the City Hall ............... 50
Table 12: Client’s Awareness on the Existence of Citizen’s Charter as a City Government
Guidebook and Client’s Knowledge on the Existence of Standards Based on Naga City
Citizen’s Charter .............................................................................................................. 51
Table 13: Attitude Towards the Office Head/Supervisor Being More Output/Performance
Oriented ............................................................................................................................ 52
Table 14: Attitude Towards Mayor Being Less Output/Performance Oriented ...................... 53
Table 15: Client’s Observations How Frontline Staff/Officers React if They Encounter Oral
Complaints and Feedback ................................................................................................ 64
Table 16: Client’s Personal Expectations on Products and Services ....................................... 66
Table 17: Client’s Personal Expectations on Products and Services - “Others” ..................... 67
Table 18: Client’s Perception of the Quality of Services Being Rendered by the City
Government ...................................................................................................................... 67
Table 19: Client’s Perception on Product/Service Availed in Local Civil Registry and
Business Permit and Licensing Division Offices ............................................................. 70
Table 20: Client’s Perception of Public Service Effectiveness Before and After Charter
Formulation/Institutionalization ....................................................................................... 70
List of Figures
Figure 1: Framework in Analyzing the Relationship Between an Organization and its
Environment ....................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 2: The Study’s Theoretical Background ...................................................................... 22
Figure 3:The Study’s Analytical Framework .......................................................................... 22
Figure 4: Map of the Philippines showing Naga City ............................................................. 23
Figure 5: Research Framework ............................................................................................... 24
Figure 6: Map of Camarines Sur showing Naga City ............................................................. 25
Figure 7:The Case Study’s Framework ................................................................................... 27
Figure 8: Building Blocks of an Effective Citizen’s Charter .................................................. 74
Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter x

Chapter 1: Introduction
“Reinventing public institutions is herculean work. To succeed, you must find

levers that can move mountains. You must find strategies that set-off chain
reactions in your organization or system, dominoes that will set all others
falling. In a phrase, you must be strategic”.
- David Osborne and Peter Plastrik
(Banishing Bureaucracy, 1998)
1.1 Research Background
If there is one thing that public administration practitioners, enthusiasts, scholars and
critiques are most fond of discussing, it would be public sector management reforms.
This is an issue that is not confined to any advanced or less advanced economy,
innovation-pioneering or lagging-behind public administrations, whether presidential or
federal governments, unitary or federal states. Governments are confronted with the
demand to improve public service delivery (Kiviniemi, 1988) and are prompted to
introduce reform initiatives whether serious or not to respond to the pressure from its
constituents.
In the last two decades, one such reform initiative has been increasingly influencing
many economies around the world. A basic reformation in public administration is taking
place both at the national and sub national levels. As a result of a growing demand for
governments to be more responsive – a citizen’s charter initiative and its variants are
occurring in many parts of the world. First to develop Citizen’s Charter (later called
Service First) is the United Kingdom in 1991 as a centerpiece programme commitment to
quality public sector reform agenda of then Prime Minister John Major (Falconer and
Ross 1999). A number of charter-like initiatives in other European countries have
followed suit: in Italy, La Carta dei Servizi; in France, La Charte des Services Publicos
(Public Service Charter); in Portugal, Carta para a Qualidade nos Servicos Publicos
(Quality Charter for Public Services); La Chartedes Utilizateurs des Services Publics
(Public Service Users Charter) in Belgium (Schiavo 2000); and Public Service
Guarantees in Sweden (Madell 2005). In the United States of America it is called
Customer’s Service Plans, in Australia it is named Service Charters (McGuire 2002) and
in India it is Citizen’s Charter (Haque 2005). Regardless of the names by which it is
referred to, its intent and purposes point to just one thing – improvement in public service
delivery.
A Citizen’s Charter is a public document that specifies the services a transacting public
may look forward to from a public office. It describes the step-by-step procedure for
availing a particular service, and the guaranteed performance levels that they may expect
for that service (James et. al. 2005). It indicates the rights and services available to the
citizens, procedures how these will be delivered, remedy that will be available in case of
non-deliverance and obligations of citizen’s in return (Haque 2005). Citizen’s charter
becomes an instrument to improve transparency, efficiency, accountability and quality in
public service delivery. It also empowers the citizenry by giving them access to
Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 1

information regarding an office’s/agency’s service standards and to corresponding
remedies available to citizens if they are not satisfied with the quality of service provided.
In the Philippines, Republic Act 9485, “An Act to Improve Efficiency in the Delivery of
Government Service to The Public by Reducing Bureaucratic Red Tape, Preventing Graft
and Corruption, and Providing Penalties Therefor” enacted in 2007 mandates all
government national offices and agencies including local government units and
government-owned or controlled corporations providing frontline services to develop
their respective service standards to be known as Citizen’s Charter. This national or
centrally issued policy is triggered partly by opinion surveys and demands (local and
international) clamouring for more transparency and accountability in public service
delivery in the country.
Interestingly, prior to the passage of this law, one city

government in the country has formulated and
implemented a city citizen’s charter called “Naga City
Citizens Charter”. This is a public service guidebook that
outlines the steps and procedures how to avail Naga City
urban public services. The city citizen’s charter started
several years before the promulgation of the law and has
just updated it for the third time. In compliance with local
ordinance, the revision is intended to update the standards
set and incorporate additional services of the city
government. Naga City serves as one of the pioneers and
benchmarks in the country which has formulated its own
service charter without any direct technical assistance from
external service providers or a directive from a national government entity.
The present form of the charter is a product of three public service improvement
programs implemented city wide – the Productivity Improvement Program (PIP); the
Quality Service Improvement Program (QSIP) and the Public Service Excellence
Program (QSEP). The PIP sought to employ private sector productivity strategies in a
local government, the QSIP intended to enhance service quality delivery in selected city
departments and the QSEP aimed to expand quality service consciousness throughout
local bureaucracy. This was a stage in the city service provision where the perspective of
end-users was taken as a paramount orientation. The city sought to document the salient
outputs of these programs into a functional guidebook for transacting public until this
undertaking was overtaken by events connected with the local elections. Perceiving the
great potential to enhance transparency and accountability, the present Mayor upon
returning to city service, revived the effort and envisioned to make this available to all
households in the city. The expansion of the gains of these initiatives formed part of
what is now called I-Governance Program of the city.
The I-Governance Program is an information based program that uses various tools to
provide city and non-city residents with information on city government policies,
programs and operations by “empowering the citizenry, encouraging participation and
improving transparency”. It seeks to involve individual citizens by widening avenues for
participation in governing the city. The Naga City Citizen’s Charter is a pivotal

component of the I-Governance Program and its digital version (called NetServe) is made
available in the official city website, www.naga.gov.ph. Utilizing the power of the
internet the guidebook is now reached by a global audience including community of
Naguenos now living in different parts of the world. The formulation, maintenance and
updating of these components is spearheaded and coordinated by a group called I-
governance Team. This very same program is recognized by The Urban Governance
Initiative/United Nations Development Program as a CyberCity Awardee for the Asia
Pacific in 2002; and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs as a
UN Public Service Awardee for Local e-Government in 2003. Locally in 2004, the
National Computer Center cited naga.gov.ph as the Best City Website and the Best LGU
Website (independent category) in the country.
Naga City Citizen’s Charter contains service charter information on what it provides to
the public, a description of what the service is; the requirements to avail the service; the
persons responsible every step; and the procedures to follow. But apart from these, the
city charter also includes citizen’s friendly information and references such as maps (for
directions in the city hall complex); directory/names of city officers and heads and their
telephone and email addresses (for contacts, appointments and queries); performance
pledges (bearing the frontline services of the office, response time, responsible persons
and the pictures of the office personnel); service campaign information (slogan and the
“employees wheel” which connects the city hall offices in support of city government
strategic goals); the city government and personnel awards and recognitions; related city
ordinance; and client feedback forms.
The citizen’s charter is viewed by this thesis as a public service reform initiative
envisaged to improve the way local governments think about and act on their service
delivery ensuring function. The initiative is believed to be promising to bring about
change in the way public servants deliver its services and is at the same time, feared to be
perilous to the same public organization for it puts itself at the doorstep of scrutiny and
criticism for whatever undelivered or sub-standard service rendered.
Box 1: Beginnings of a History: How Citizen’s Charter Came to be in the City of Naga
When Mayor Jesse Robredo came in 1988 from the Bicol River Basin Rehabilitation Project, the city had a
typical local government story: low income employees, low morale, no dedication, no customer orientation,
all reflected in an ineffective government service delivery. Coming from the private sector himself, the
mayor was disappointingly taken aback of the unresponsive culture and the system that has long
permeated in the four walls of the city hall. So he subjected the city government to a personal assessment
and found the human resource as a focal point for initiating a reform in the city government. Slowly, the
Mayor implemented some innovations in human resource management anchored on the concept of
productivity where he instituted a system of hiring, no longer on political patronage but based on merits
according to guidelines of civil service regulations. Little by little, the morale of the employees was
regained. The HRD implemented trainings (on 5’S and 3’Rs, among others) for city employees to efficiently
and effectively undertake job and complemented this with an increase in employee’s salaries which
somehow made positive changes for the city. The employees committed themselves to a Performance
Pledge indicating their steadfastness to government service. Until 1995 came, this continuing human
resource reform called the Productivity Improvement Program (PIP) won in the Galing Pook Awards for
Local Government Administration - a proof that private sector productivity techniques are possible in
government setting. At this time the city also embarked on computerizing it operations which further
streamlined its processes and systems. As for organizational development, the city also implemented the
Quality Service Improvement Program (QSIP) which built the customer focused skills of employees. In

Dec. 1997 the city was one of the 11 pilots of Associates in Rural Development-Governance and Local
Democracy (ARD-GOLD) of USAID, a demand driven technical assistance project which trained the city’s
health, hospital, social welfare, population and nutrition and environment departments and offices on Basic
Customer Service Skills.
Then came 1999 with a revitalized program Public Service Excellence Program (PSEP), a higher level
QSIP which produced two trainors from the city who then trained 31 department/offices for six months on
service vision, service audit and customer skills development, among others. There was a training team
formed that facilitated the training of the entire city departments. Many attended the three batch training.
But prior to this, four office representatives attended an appreciation course with ARD GOLD: the Human
Resource Officer, the City Planning and Development Coordinator, Public Employment Services Officer
and a City Health Officer who at that time were asked to share their very own Performance Pledge (which
commits city employees to providing quality services) that was later adopted by the ARD-GOLD into its
QSIP. The pledge is original to Naga City Government to address the city’s inefficiencies before. At that
time they tried to marry the PIP (inward-looking, productivity focused) and QSIP/PSEP (outward-looking,
quality focused). The Naga City Citizen’s Charter reflects the outputs of these programs. Then came 2000,
at the tail-end of ARD-GOLD extension assistance was a workshop on guidebook development which
yielded the basic structure of the charter. An editorial team was called to look into all outputs of the offices
but efforts have been overtaken by electoral preparations. Until 2001 when the effort was revived, the
production ensued and finally came Naga City Citizen’s Charter under the I-Governance Program of the
City. Little do they know that six years after, their pioneering effort will become one of the models if not
inspiration for the establishment of countrywide effort on citizen’s charter development.
1.2 Research Objectives and Questions

The overall objective of the research is to explore the influence of citizen’s charter in
improving or enhancing the transparency, accountability and quality in service
delivery in the city.
Overall Research Question:
“To what extent did the citizen’s charter improve or enhance transparency,
accountability and quality of service delivery in Naga City?”
How useful are the strategies and approaches employed in the formulation,
implementation and institutionalization of citizen’s charter?
How open and accessible are the information and standards set in the citizen’s
charter?
How resolute are the city government officials and employees in responding to
complaints and feedbacks received from implementation of the citizen’s charter?
How do employees and clients perceive the quality of services rendered by the city
government?
Objective 1: Investigate the strategies and approaches employed in formulating,

implementing and institutionalizing the citizen’s charter.
Proposition: The adequacy and appropriateness of strategies and approaches used in

formulation and implementation paved way for the citizen’s charter institutionalization.

Sub research questions:
1. What are the facilitating and/or hindering factors for its formulation and
implementation?
2. How have the systems and approaches helped in institutionalizing the charter?
Objective 2: Examine how open and accessible are the information and standards set
in the citizen’s charter.
Proposition: The openness and accessibility of information and standards allow public
awareness on citizen’s charter to flourish.
1. How clear are the requirements or pre-requisites in availing the services of the city
government?
2. How accessible are the information related to citizen’s charter?
Objective 3: Analyze the accountability mechanisms established in the citizen’s charter.

Proposition: The presence of functional feedback, complaints and redress mechanisms
reinforce institutionalization of the citizen’s charter.
1. Are city government officials and employees displaying their names for clients to
know and approach them?
2. Are there feedback and complaints mechanisms established?
3. Are there redress mechanisms instituted?
Objective 4: Assess the level of quality of services rendered by the city government.
Proposition 2: Perceived quality of public services affects the satisfaction/approval rating
of the public.
1. Is the service available as stated? Are the outputs of services correct and accurate?
2. Is the treatment the same for all types of clients? Is the standard processing time
for the service followed?
3. Is the public servant courteous, friendly and accommodating? Is there a decent
and comfortable waiting area?
1.3 Research Relevance

The findings of the research aim to generate valuable information and practical
considerations for application to the present initiative of the country (RA 9485) to reform
public service delivery at the local level. It hopes to cull important learning (facilitating
and hindering factors) from the application/implementation of citizen’s charter which
may, in the long run be considered by the oversight agencies/committee in monitoring
and evaluating the law, or in the short term be incorporated in the manual/toolkit being
designed. The thesis intends to generate workable recommendations as to how the present
design of technical assistance for citizen’s charter formulation in the Philippines may be
enhanced.
Secondarily and latently, the results of the study would resemble a Report Card Survey
(RCS) for the City of Naga. The Report Card Survey is also a provision contained in RA
9485 which provides that all agencies and offices providing frontline services shall be
subjected to a survey that aims to obtain feedback on how the provisions in the Citizen’s
Charter are being followed and how the agency is performing. Findings of the research
may well serve the city government by treating it as an independent study whose
recommendations and suggestions may be considered for continuous improvement of city
service delivery.
And lastly, it hopes to impart insight on the question of the importance of local
governments receiving external technical assistance from consultants and other
institutions if needed; and to give insight on the capability of local governments to
formulate and implement the initiative on their own.

Chapter 2: Literature Review and Analytical Framework
2.1 Public Sector Management Reform

The pre-occupation of researchers, scholars and enthusiasts with public sector reform is
understandable. This is a policy discourse that is close to people’s experience in dealing
with and transacting with the government. Regardless of status and political leaning, the
encounter people have with government would always receive a thought that it could
have been better and purposive. The public would always have something to say. Driven
by these expectations and demands for accountable, transparent and quality public
service, numerous reform initiatives have been flaunted and implemented with various
degrees of support from the very clients – the public. As Pollitt and Bouckaert would
put it: “public management reform consists of deliberate changes to the structures and
processes of public sector organization with the objective of getting them to run better”
(2004, p. 8). The reform initiatives, projects or programmes invariably touch on thematic
areas such as accountability, transparency, and quality of service delivery. One recent
public management reform program occurring in the Philippines is the formulation and
institutionalization of Citizen’s Charter.
This particular reform initiative in the country is a landmark legislation that puts forth
seriousness in reforming the service delivery in the bureaucracy. For quite a long time,
and in general sense, Philippine bureaucracies and in particular local government
bureaucracies have been existing and delivering services without written and published
procedures and manuals that which both implementers and service recipients can base
upon and expect of. The absence of clearly defined procedures and steps and the
standards by which these should be delivered has resulted in confusion, dissatisfaction of
customers and inefficiencies. It made the bureaucracy and the transacting public prone or
vulnerable to illicit transactions and red tape.
The reform initiative is expected to trigger changes in the civil servants attitude and
behaviour as well as changes in the way the people perceives public service delivery.
This is because the charter itself will define the performance standards of the staff and
supervisors with which they will be accountable. The same citizen’s charter will also
motivate civil servants and bureaucrats to behave and act based on service standards
because rewards and punishments are also anchored unto said charters. Citizens as
“customers” are also empowered to insist appropriate services, utilize and provide
feedback and demand compensation for services below standards. Citizens as recipients
of public services are thus becoming more active in defining the whole service delivery.
2.2 New Public Management

This public sector management reform initiative points to the characteristics forwarded
by the overarching philosophy of New Public Management (NPM) – application of
private sector styles of management; introduction of performance management; shift to
(internal) competition; focus on results, efficiency, effectiveness and quality; stress on
output per budget allocation and discipline in use of public resources; and treatment of
the public as customers and clients (Borins 2000). It now focuses greatly ‘on the

external’ which is referred to as client orientation (van den Dool 2005). While NPM may
actually encompass all other principles that which the Traditional Public Administration
is not, the principles mentioned above are those clearly espoused by the citizen’s charter.
NPM is the transfer of business and market principles and management techniques from
the private into the public sector, symbiotic and consistent with and based on neo-liberal
understanding of state and economy. The goal therefore, is a slim, reduced, minimal state
in which any public activity is decreased and if at all, exercised according to business
principles of efficiency (Drechsler 2005, p.1).
According to Hood (1995) who believes in the universal appeal and application of NPM,
there are seven doctrinal changes associated with New Public Management’s stance on
how public administration should be handled. These are:
1. shift towards greater disaggregation (unbundling) of the public sector into
corporatized units organized by product;
2. shift towards more contract based competitive provision, with internal markets
and term contracts;
3. stress on private sector styles of management practice;
4. move towards greater stress on discipline and frugality in resource use;
5. more emphasis on visible hands-on top management;
6. move towards more explicit and measurable standards of performance and
success; and;
7. greater emphasis on output controls or results.
New Public Management advances an apolitical framework and claims to solve
management ills in many different contexts.
The clarion call of NPM to introduce reforms in the way government does its work is also
highlighted in the ‘reinventing government’ dubbed by Osborne and Plastrik (1997). The
summon is for the government to reinvent its customary ways and adapt a more
entrepreneurial approach of doing things. This involves remarkable change in objectives,
power configuration, custom and tradition and accountabilities. The change is envisaged
to enhance government’s competence, responsiveness, efficiency and flexibility. They
proposed five strategies (5Cs) to introduce this kind of change:
1. The Core Strategy for Creating Clarity of Purpose. It is defining the objective and
purpose of the public organization whether it is the steerer (giving guidance) or
the provider (producing services) in order for the leadership to focus on achieving
one collective and vivid purpose.
2. The Consequences Strategy of Incentives. It is building performance level and
evaluation and incentives (financial or non-financial) into public systems.
3. The Customer Strategy for Accountability to Their Customers. It focuses on the
accountability of the government in enhancing the client choices on the delivery
and provision of public goods and services.
4. The Control Strategy for Shifting Control Away from the Top and Center.
Promoting Bottom-Up governance wherein the power on the decision is shifted

out into community that includes partnership and decentralizing managerial
controls.
5. The Cultural Strategy for Creating an Entrepreneurial Culture. It is
overhauling the system wherein outmoded ways of performing is converted
into client and performance oriented management.
Andrisani, Hakim and Savas (2002, p2) pointed to the changes in the very nature of
American public administration as illustration of what is called New Public Management
(NPM). Its elements include:
1. Reverting to core functions;
2. Decentralizing and devolving authority;
3. Limiting the size and scope of government; rightsizing;
4. Restoring civil society;
5. Adopting market principles;
6. Managing for results, satisfying citizens, and holding government accountable;
7. Empowering employees, citizens, and communities; and
8. Introducing e-government and modern technology.
Elaborately, van Dijk (2006, pp 44-45) explains that NPM theory is used by some experts
as saying good urban governance means applying the principles of NPM. He said: “the
good governance discussion is a step forward in urban management because urban
politicians and managers are now more accountable for what they are doing.
Accountability is one of the key concepts in NPM theory, a theory that is revolutionizing
public management by putting emphasis on contracts and autonomy, while stressing the
importance of market orientation and customer orientation”. Among the key concepts in
NPM are autonomy, accountability, customer orientation, and market orientation. Below
is an illustration showing a framework to analyze the relationship between an
organization and its environment.
Figure 1: Framework in Analyzing the Relationship Between an Organization and its
Environment
Autonomy of Utility Performance Targets Accountability for

or Local Government Results
Contracts Contracts
(Source: van Dijk, 2006, p.45)

Autonomy is the ability to make important decisions at a lower level of government or at
the level of a government owned company. This may either be internal autonomy which
make local government or utility more flexible, effective and innovative; or external, the
service provider be it the local government or the utility is shielded from opportunistic
political interference to allow managers to respond to the needs of the their customers.
The degree of autonomy is determined by the legal authority of the local government or
utility, constrained by a number of external limitations like condition of labour market,
access to financial resources, policy framework, regulation, political commitment and
support and availability and quality of natural resources (van Dijk 2006, pp44-46).
van Dijk (2006, pp 46-47) refers to accountability as rendering account of the way public
money is spent; for which purposes it has been spent and did this have the expected
results. It is necessary for both the local government and the utility. Local government is
accountable to the municipal council and its citizens while the utility is accountable to a
variety of actors including the owner, the regulator, the financing institutions and NGOs
and special interest groups. There are two kinds of accountability with respect to
government owned company: the first relates to the relationship between the actual
service provider and the management oversight agency (i.e. municipality or a board of
directors) and second is accountability of staff within the organization (e.g. service
provider) and is also known as ‘managerial accountability’. Van Dijk continues and
explains accountability concerns who is holding management responsible for the
performance resulting from their decisions. NPM promotes contract as a main
accountability mechanism. This can take the forms such as performance contract,
customer charters, loan agreements, etc.
Customer orientation is the attention paid to customers of the local government or a
utility. It is measured by the attention paid to complaints, representation of customers in
different bodies and the frequency (and results) of surveys to find out what customers or
citizens think of service provided by the local government and utility (van Dijk 2006, p.
47).
Market orientation according to van Dijk (2006, pp 47-48) aims to capture the benefits of
competition. This orientation expects to achieve increasing efficiency of service
provision. Best known method is private sector participation. A local government’s or
utility’s market orientation is assessed by looking at: the use of out
contracting/outsourcing in service provision; the use of benchmarking practices in the
utility; and the use of other mechanisms to introduce quasi competition.
Below is a table showing the NPM Principles and the corresponding NPM Instruments
as outlined by van Dijk (2006, p.78)
Table 1: NPM Principles and NPM Instruments
NPM Principles NPM Instruments
Autonomy Influencing tariffs
Accountability Using contracts
Customer Orientation A service-oriented company
Corporate Culture Incentive programs
Market Orientation Benchmarking/making an inventory of possible
private sector participation

NPM hypothesizes that a well performing local governments or utilities are likely to be
subject to considerable accountability mechanisms that contain explicit performance
targets.
In this thesis, NPM principles of performance management, client orientation, focus on
results, efficiency, effectiveness and quality will be highlighted in the course of
explaining citizen’s charter as a public service reform program.
2.3 Good Governance

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) defined governance as:
“The exercise of political, economic and administrative
authority in the management of the country’s affairs at all
levels. It comprises the mechanisms, processes and
institutions through which citizens and groups articulate
their interests, exercise their rights, meet their obligations
and mediate their differences” (in UNDP-TUGI, 2003).
There are four aspects to this definition laid out by UNDP. One is that governance is
broader concept than government. Power is recognized to exist even outside the formal
institutions and authority in government. Second, that governance is more than just
management, that it is also concerned with the governance environment in which
management decisions are taken and implemented. Third, that governance emphasizes
process arising from the complex relationship between different actors possessing
different interests. And lastly, that governance itself is a neutral concept, either positive
or negative, thus necessitating a “good governance” that signifies an exercise of political,
economic and administrative authority in the most positive, productive and creative form.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the document Governance for
Sustainable Human Development explains:
“Good governance is, among other things, participatory,
transparent and accountable. It is also effective and
equitable, and promotes the rule of law fairly. Good
governance ensures that the voices of the poorest and the
most vulnerable are based on broad consensus among key
stakeholders – the state, the private sector and civil society”
(in UNDP-TUGI 2003).
Translating this good governance within the context of urban setting, The Urban
Governance Initiative (TUGI) Users’ Manual spells out nine core characteristics of good
urban governance: participation, rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus
orientation, equity, effectiveness and efficiency, accountability and strategic vision. It
looked at participation as men and women having a voice in decision making, either
directly or through legitimate intermediate institutions that represent their interests. It is
built on freedom of association and speech, as well as capacities to participate
constructively. It sees rule of law as legal frameworks that are fair and are enforced
impartially, particularly the laws on human rights. It characterized transparency as
building on free flow information, where processes, institutions and information are
directly accessible to those concerned with them. Responsiveness is trying to serve all

stakeholders. Consensus orientation is mediating different interests to reach broad
consensus on what is the interest of the group, and where possible on policies and
procedures. Equity pertains to availability of opportunities for all men and women to
improve or maintain well-being. Effectiveness and efficiency refer to processes and
institutions producing results that meet needs while making the best use of resources. It
described accountability as answerability of decision makers in government, the private
sector and civil society organizations to the public or institutional stakeholders. Strategic
vision is broad and long term perspective on human development and its requirements.
By and large, the term “governance” has by now become a more or less neutral concept
that focuses on steering mechanisms in a certain political unit, emphasizing the
interaction of state, business and society players. “Good Governance”, on the other hand,
is not all neutral; rather it is a normative concept that again embodies a strong value
judgment in favor of the retrenchment of the state, which is supposed to yield to business
standard principles, and - not least- interests. In that sense, “Good governance” privileges
the Second (business) over the First Sector (state), even in First Sector areas (Drechsler
2005, p.8).
UNDP (1997) has defined Transparency as “sharing information, and acting in an open
manner. It allows stakeholders to gather information that may be critical to uncovering
abuses and defending their interests. Transparent systems have clear procedures for
public decision making and open channels of communication between stakeholders and
officials”.
On the other hand, it discussed Accountability as a “requirement that officials answer to
stakeholders on the disposal of their power and duties, act on criticisms or requirements
made of them and accept responsibility in case of failure, incompetence. Accountability
involves adhering to a set of established criteria and using these to measure the
performance of officials and estimate economic and financial outputs. It requires the
following pre-requisites: freedom of information, stakeholders who are able to organize;
and rule of law” (Ibid).
The importance of stakeholder participation in formulating, implementing and
institutionalizing policy is underscored in a lot of development planning and policy
development literatures. Regardless of cultural or geographic identities,
citizen/community participation is considered an indispensable ingredient in a
meaningful decision making process. One of these literatures is the classic ladder of
citizen participation and nonparticipation written by Sherry Arnstein (1971)1 where she
illustrated a ladder-like levels or modes where “have-not” citizens can have the
opportunity to be involved in economic or political decision making processes. It has
eight rungs which starts at the bottom (nonparticipation) – manipulation, therapy, to
informing, consultation, placation, partnership (tokenism), to delegated power, and
citizen’s control which is the apex (citizen power) of the ladder. This simple typology
however, does not capture the reality of varying degrees of influence the powerless/less
powerful have in the entire decision making process. Nonetheless, this serve to illustrate
1
Arnstein, Sherry R. (1971) likened citizen participation to a ‘caring spinach’ which in principle means no one
will be against of because it is good for everyone.

that there exist a construct where practitioners and students of citizen’s participation can
look at to describe the levels of participation in development plans and projects.
A variation of this typology is formulated by David Wilcox2 (1994) wherein he modified
the ladder into stances to read now as: Information; Consultation; Deciding together;
Acting together and Supporting independent community interests. Wilcox premises his
typology that participation is a ‘controlled process’ wherein someone (with resources)
initiates and manages the participation process and has a reason for doing so. He explains
that Information stance is where you tell people what is planned; Consultation stance is
where you offer a number of options and listen to the feedback you get; Deciding
together stance is where you encourage others to provide some additional ideas and
options, and join in deciding the best way forward; Acting together stance is where a
partnership is forged to carry it out best decision; and Supporting independent community
initiatives stance is where you help others do what they want - perhaps within a
framework of grants, advice and support provided by the resource holder.
Within the state sector itself, many of the principles of “Good Governance” are therefore
identical with NPM. And while a unitary definition of the concept never existed, not even
within the respective individual international finance institutions, “good” principles
usually encompassed such concepts as transparency, efficiency, participation,
responsibility, and market economy, state of law, democracy and justice. Many of them
are indubitably “good” as such but all of them – except the last one, which is the most
abstract – are heavily context dependent, hinging not only on definition and
interpretation, but also on time and space (Drechsler 2005, p.8).
This thesis will anchor its elaboration on those espoused by good governance. The
Citizen’s Charter is being viewed as an instrument to propagate and instil the values of
accountability, transparency, participation, efficiency, and effectiveness in running the
affairs of the local government and in implementing its projects and programs. These
shall be used in expounding the formulation, implementation and institutionalization
processes related to the citizen’s charter.
2.4 The Consumer, the Client and the Citizen

The importance of citizen’s charter is being recognized not just at governance levels (i.e.
central-local; national-sub-national) sectoral level i.e. parent’s charter (schools), patient’s
charter (hospital), passenger’s charter (rail) but also along approach/strategy level. A
model of citizen’s charter for disaster management is being advocated in hazard-prone
Uttaranchal Region in India (Pande and Pande 2007). The Citizen’s Charter of Disaster
Management is considered to be another effective tool to bring in citizen-centric
governance.
Drewry in Pollitt (1998, pp349-350) points out that charters have been established across
a range of countries, largely in response to the trans-national public administration reform
agenda and its growing emphasis on the phenomenon known as the ‘public sector
2
Wilcox, David (1994) believes that participation may work best for all concerned when each of the key interests -
the stakeholders - is satisfied with the level of participation at which they are involved. That is, those who don't
have much at stake may be happy to be informed or consulted. Others will want to be involved in decisions and
possibly action to carry them out.

consumer’. Andrisani, Hakim and Savas explain that citizens play different roles. One is
as consumers of government services, and therefore government must, like all service
providers, satisfy its customers. The citizen-consumer-customer is king. Customer’s
service is a major thrust of modern managers in government. This means getting things
done right, quickly, courteously, and knowledgeably (2002, p9).
One of the criticisms poised to citizen’s charter is its name itself. More particular to the
UK, the discourse centers on the semantics of the use of the terms citizens, customers,
clients and users. Harrison (1999, p.58) for instance notes that placing of apostrophe in
citizen’s, patient’s, parent’s charters symbolizes the view of the individual with his or her
own wants, needs, preferences and grievances which runs contrary to the view that
citizens pertain to collective or group in relation to the state. Harrison points “mutual
understanding between the state and the citizen cannot occur on an individual basis, but
must be group to group”.
Another complication to this semantics is the question from whose view should the
citizen’s charter must emanate. Harrison (1999, p 58) says the local government is more
inclined to see citizen within the group – the local community – possibly as a member of
the electorate, and certainly someone who shares with the group civic rights which are
additional to the rights of the consumer (the right to know, be heard, be treated with
fairness, honesty and courtesy as well as the right to participate and be represented). The
central government seems to view citizens differently in content and in purpose. Barnett
and Harrison in Harrison (1999) explain: “there is clearly overlap, in that similar
methods have been used for different aims. Thus, for example, decentralization can be
consumer-based and initiated out of concern for more responsive service delivery, or can
be citizen-based and concerned with the devolution of political power and increased
participation”.
Users have responsibilities as well as rights (Harrison 1999). This cliché stems from the
argument that citizen or client or customer’s charter is a contract. Therefore, citizens,
users or customers have the responsibility to make the contract work by fulfilling certain
expectations as well like, showing the same courtesy to both service providers and other
citizens, paying promptly and providing opinions and suggestions for service
improvement. Harrison points the same expectation, for example by the Sheffield City
Treasury, that customers in return should be honest, provide accurate and prompt
information, pay bills and behave reasonably towards employees. The contract therefore
is a “two way street”.
The foregoing is consistent with an earlier observation and remark of Pollitt (1994, p.12)
in the UK’s citizen’s charter conceptualization whereby citizens are viewed more as
‘subjects’ of the Crown and that the White Paper has no reference to citizens instead
refers to users or consumers of public services. He explains “To be a consumer is to hold
a particular position in a network of market relations. To be a citizen is to be a member of
a political community, a richer concept embracing a much wider range of potential
relationships”.
The UK example of charterism indicates that public sector consumerism is not solely
concerned with the users of public services. It is fundamentally about service providers
and the customer’s awareness orientation of public service delivery agencies (Pollitt,
1998, p. 350). Lovell (1992) for his part argues that if the improvements in customer

service required by the Citizen’s Charter are to be effective and long lasting, changes in
structures and systems will need to be accompanied by change in culture and
management style. A customer responsive culture is necessary if customer service is to
be improved.
The thesis may interchangeably use the terms citizens or customers or clients in its
discussion of the processes the City went through in coming up with and implementing
the charter. Although the thesis may use the word customers and clients as depicting a
relationship where the public/user is more of a rightful recipient of services therefore
deserves all right to demand and exact, the citizens as term, on the other hand, the thesis
may also use it to refer to the relationship where the public/user is expected to render the
equal obligations it ought to as a party to the contract.
2.5 Some Findings from Citizen’s Charter

On Factors Associated with Citizen’s Charter Formulation, Implementation and
Institutionalization
Azizah (2008, p40) in her study of Citizen’s Charter Transformation in Yogyakarta City
has looked at several internal and external variables related to citizen’s charter
formulation. One of which is the involvement of actors. She found that actors came from
different backgrounds, the government, the academe, the representatives from NGOs,
members of local parliament, members of representative’s board, middle level staff from
some city government agency who formed the Citizen’s Charter Forum responsible for
drafting, monitoring and evaluation of the CC for Birth Certificate Service. These actors
have contributed technical, financial, human, and political resources to the formulation of
the charter.
More specifically to staff involvement in formulating the charter, the experience of
Yogyakarta City is mixed, there was participation in the CC for Birth Certification and
there was marginalization for the CC on Children’s ID. But in this case the explanation
lies in the magnitude or number of staff in the office, many staff means less possibility of
involvement. The involvement of staff in the ‘transformation process’ is important to
illicit sense of belongingness that would make them ready for change; and to reduce
resistance that comes from insecure feeling of change (ibid).
A field assessment was conducted by PAC (2005, p.23) in eight departments located
Bangalore City, Karnataka, India to assess implementation of citizen’s charter. These
departments include Bangalore City Police, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport
Corporation, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Commercial Taxes
Department, Karanataka State Police, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj
Department, Stamps and Registration Department and Transport Department. On
awareness and responsiveness, it was found that officials especially in head offices are
aware of the existence of the charter. Local office heads fare quite well in this regard
however line staff that interact directly with citizens are not fully aware of the existence
of citizen’s charter.
As to institutionalization (defined in this study as the process referring to internalizing, or
bringing in new values, norms and behavior needed to execute the charter), Azizah (2008

p.44) noted leadership as one important factor. This includes commitment, coordination
and adaptation. Members of the CC Forum were found committed in the process of
formulation and implementation. Indirectly this commitment has affected how the
frontliners implemented the charter. It has inspired the frontliners to put their
commitment too in the transformation process.
Azizah (2008, p. 45) also pointed to training system (which helps staff to adapt into new
values and manners as required by the charter) which allowed the transfer and
internalization of new values and manners. While there were trainings conducted, not all
were able to be included for two reasons: limited budget and the secondly the training
was meant for trainers. The effect of the training was not long lasting. Gradually staff did
not practice ‘friendly service (prescribed greeting)’ when they were in peak hours. The
language difference (Javanese to Indonesian) was a reason for non conformance to
standard. Azizah recommended that that a maintenance program be instituted to sustain
initial trainings. This program may include reward and punishment mechanism,
communication, monitoring and good supporting office facilities.
Azizah (2008, p.46) also discussed the importance of reward and punishment system in
the institutionalization of the charter. In the Yogyakarta’s experience this was not very
effective. More particularly because the reward system was not integrated into it. No
financial or non financial reward was attached to performance of standards in the two
charters they drafted. She underscored that constant appraisal and incentives will be
needed since it’s about changing understanding, perception and action from one stage to
another.
Staff’s opinion about the charter was also looked into and the PAC (2007, p.46) study
found that the institutionalization process was both successful and not, for there were
staff who considered the CC as an instrument to optimize service delivery to citizens and
there were those who felt the CC was a control mechanism that pushes them to meet the
standards set in the charter.
Azizah (2008 p. 46-47) also studied communication of change from leader to staff as
an indicator to measure the institutionalization process. In Yogyakarta’s experience,
routine meetings were conducted to monitor and evaluate the implementation.
Socialization program was also arranged to introduce CC to the staffs and citizens.
Support variable such as sufficiency of office facilities was also looked at. Azizah (2008
p.47) noted since the charter was aimed at shortening time needed to deliver the services
it means that there should be additional facilities to support the charter. Even though
staffs have changed their mindset when facilities are not well managed may cause
negative effect on the staff’s performance.
Azizah (2008 p.49) measured staff’s attitude in delivering the service based on the
standards written in the charter. In this case, the standard for public officers was to greet
the citizen’s who come for service – “Good morning/Good afternoon. What can I do for
you?” Findings show that in practice not all frontliners always accomplish this standard.
In Yogyakarta’s case the reasons for non compliance mentioned point to number of staff
available and the number of transacting public. If the office is short of human resources
and the clients are many, chances are, as in this case, the standard would not be met all
the time. Thus, affecting the achievement of one objectives of their charter – delivering
friendly and congenial service.
On Transparency
Azizah (2008, p51) in her study of citizen’s charter institutionalization in Yogyakarta
City revealed that transparency in the city provision of Citizen/Children’s ID Services has
not fully taken place Transparency of service was measured using certainty of charges.
Azizah found out that even if staff knew there are standards for charges there was a
willful choice not to inform the citizens. This is because staff would lose the opportunity
to get additional income from the service (i.e. becoming a witness to the service as one of
the requirements), or would not be able to charge extraordinary service for a fast service
(especially for wealthy clients). The survey done confirmed that there were staffs not
providing official receipts to clients simply because clients did not ask for it. Knowledge
of the standard charges according to Azizah is important to achieve transparency. Thus
she proposes education of citizens to inform that they have the right to ask for receipts.
McKeown, 1993 (as cited in Pollit, 1994 p.13) reports modest changes that can be
directly attributed to “charterism” such as wearing of name badges; acceleration of
improvements to complaints procedures.
On Accountability
The discourse on citizen’s charter can be further stretched. Harrison (1999) explains that
the rights and duties of citizens, customers, consumers and clients are both less clear and
less well balanced. Elcock in Harrison (1999) points that downward accountability i.e.
to the recipients of services, is addressed in citizen’s charter. He foresees that the charter
will encourage users to be more assertive and to make complaints, thus improving the
accountability downwards. He doesn’t see evidence of effective accountability in any
other direction.
In the 2005, a PAC study revealed in terms of grievance redress, Bangalore Water Supply
and Sewerage Board puts in place the most comprehensive system for effective redress
mechanism which includes measures such as information when to complain, where to
complain, details of nodal officer, format for complaints, time limit for response,
assurance of action taken and acknowledgement.
The presence of feedback is one measure of accountable governance. PAC’s (2007, p24)
study revealed that users are not encouraged to provide feedback on charters. More
than 84% of respondents that had seen a Citizen’s Charter had not had the opportunity to
provide feedback to department officials responsible for the implementation of the
agency citizen’s charter, indicating that end users are rarely consulted, when drafting,
implementing, or updating the charter.
PAC (2007 p.22) found that most of those dissatisfied users do not file complaints. Of
those who were dissatisfied with service provider, just 36% reported filing complaint
while a further 68% of those who filed wanted to file but could not do so because they
were unaware of grievance redress options. However, 87% of those who actually filed a
complaint found the procedure to be simple. Almost 63% had their complaint
acknowledged and 68% had their complaints resolved within the time period stipulated
by the citizen’s charter.
Further PAC (2007, p27) discloses that most officials claim to resolve grievances in a
timely fashion while end-users beg to differ. Nearly 76% of officials interviewed
claimed to acknowledge user complaints within the time period specified in the
departments’ citizen’s charter. Almost 43% of officials stated that their department
resolves 75% to 100% of formal complaints within the time period specified in the
charters. Yet just 39% of end users who filed a formal complaint report that officials
promptly acknowledge and resolve grievances per standards.
On Quality
In this study of Citizen’s Charter in Yogyakarta City, quality of the service was measured
using the certainty of time. Azizah’s (2008, p.5) study revealed that staff knew of the
standard time by which a service should have been delivered however, due to lack of
computer facilities service providers often violated this standard. Clients have accepted
this situation because they are being informed of the possibility of delay. In some cases
however, the study revealed that sanctions have been applied thus, staffs would be the
one to deliver the product to the citizen’s house. Critical to this is the client’s knowledge
of time standard which Azizah confirmed not many people know of.
PAC (2005) studied courtesy and staff behavior during a field assessment of citizen’s
charters in eight departments in Bangalore City and found that staff behaviour are better
in head offices (than in local offices) and that by and large, most departments fare well in
this respect. PAC’s study in 2007 found that officials on the other hand are generally
courteous and helpful. Nearly 86% of respondents felt that officials they encountered
were courteous or very courteous. Similarly, 83% perceived officials to be helpful or very
helpful. In terms of availability, the same assessment report prepared by PAC (2005)
points out that in almost all offices, charters are not available for the public. Many offices
have a lone copy in an office file that cannot ordinarily be accessed by citizens. Most
staffs were unable to procure a copy of the charter upon request. In terms of display in
notice boards, very few offices have displayed citizen’s charter. In instances where
notice boards display salient features of the charter, they are not visible to users upon
entering offices nor are the contents clear.
PAC’s (2005) desk review of citizen’s charters of the same set of departments reveal that
only two (transport department and transport corporation) out of eight departments have
adequately met the standards of service which includes full list of procedures, clarity of
steps, prescribed timings of offices, time limit for a service, cost of service, and
conditions to be complied with.
In another study of PAC (2007, p.21) which was national in scope covering hundreds of
citizen’s charter across India, revealed that in terms of increasing service quality end
users feel that service quality was average to poor. 48% percent of clients of agencies
who have adopted a charter graded the department’s performance as such. Study
mentioned that departments must go beyond merely drafting charters and actually
implement systemic changes that have real impact on service quality.
In terms of citizen friendliness, PAC 2007 (p13) report mentions Bangalore Metropolitan
Transport Corporation meeting most of the criteria for a client friendly charter that
includes simplicity of language, small document, provision for updating charter,
commitment of courtesy and friendliness, description of role of citizen’s,
information on where copy of charter is available, provision for consultation with
users to gauge satisfaction, availability in multiple languages, information on year of
publication, periodic review to ensure proper implementation, and compensation
clause. None of the offices covered by this desk review was found containing provision
on compensation if promised services is not delivered in time. This Assessment Report
on Karnataka’s Citizen’s Charter mentions cases of compensation being paid in Andhra
Pradesh and Delhi.
Osborne and Plastrik (1998, p36) relayed that in terms of quality and satisfaction among
United Kingdom’s national agencies the service standards they set had driven visible
improvements in services. The National Health Service had lowered patient’s waiting
time from two hours to thirty minutes. In March 1990 for example, 200,000 patients were
waiting for admission in hospitals but by March of 1995, the number was reduced to
32,000. The Royal Mail had raised the percentage of first class letters delivered by the
next working day from 85.5% in 1990-91 to 92% in 1994-95. The British Rail had
similarly improved in terms of raising the percentage of trains arriving within 10 minutes
of their scheduled time from 78% in 1991 to 88% by end of 1994. The Passport Office
had decreased the time of securing a passport from 95 days to a maximum of 15 working
days.
Three years after the implementation of centrally issued policy on citizen’s charter in UK,
Pollitt (1994, p.13) relayed empirical findings from some local studies which cast doubts
on the claim that CC programme is making major difference to service quality. In a
small scale research in West London they found that “majority of users could not detect
any change for better or for worse…hardly any of the citizens we interviewed could
accurately identify a single standard”. He went on to say “What is more disturbing for
charter enthusiasts is the finding that many of the quality improvements that have been
achieved have little to do with the charter. Many were already in place, often the result of
local initiatives, financial pressures or legislative requirements that have little to do with
the charter”. Pollitt asserts that at that time, the value added of the charter programme
appears ‘disappointingly small’.
On Impact of Display of Charter
The national review of citizen’s charter in India conducted by PAC (2007, p25) discloses
important findings to the question whether the display of Citizen’s Charter in offices
impacts service delivery. In a comparison of those who displayed and did not, study
reveals that interviewed users were more satisfied with offices that displayed citizen’s
charter. Twenty nine percent (29%) were satisfied with office’s performance compared to
15% of users interviewed in offices that did not display a charter. Offices that display
citizen’s charters deliver service closer to established standards than of offices that
do not display citizen’s charters. Thirty nine percent (39%) perceived that those offices
who displayed charters hewed closer to established standards than 21% of users who
visited offices that did not display citizen’s charter.
Further revealed is the finding that offices that display citizen’s charter are better
prepared to facilitate service delivery and grievance redress. A much larger
proportion of users (80%) interviewed in offices that displayed CC found the forms
needed to apply for service or formal complaints than users who were interviewed in
offices that did not display citizen’s charter. In addition, many more of those who went to
offices with charters displayed found the officials very courteous and helpful than
those who went to offices without charters displayed. Nearly 25% and 23% of users
felt that officials were courteous and helpful, respectively, compared to 16% and 22% of
users who were interviewed in offices that do not display a charter. Moreover, a larger

proportion of those who lodged complaints among those (29%) who went to offices with
charter displayed found the officials very helpful and considerate than those (14%) who
went to offices with no charter displayed (PAC, p. 26).
On Awareness
In terms of awareness PAC’s (2007, p23) national review of citizen’s charter
implementation in the entire India divulged that awareness of the citizen’s charter is
extremely low. Almost 74% of users surveyed were unaware of that citizen’s charters
exist. Of those that were aware of the citizen’s charter program: 10% had simply heard
but had not actually seen or read a charter; 7.7% had seen a charter in an office but had
not read the document; 7.4% had seen and read a charter and 1% had seen, read and had a
copy of citizen’s charter in hand. The study mentions that the lack of awareness of
citizen’s charter initiative highlights the ineffectiveness of public service providers to
inform citizen’s o the program.
Summary of the Review of Literature
In varying degrees of seriousness and impact in different countries worldwide, many
attempts have made by various public administrations to reform the way the bureaucracy
does its mandate. Approaches range from vision and values clarification, strategies
reformulation, resource augmentation, technology adaptation, management innovations,
performance monitoring and management, systems re-engineering, benchmarking, and
the list goes on. In the midst of present trends like decentralization, urbanization and
competitiveness, the cry for a government that delivers mandates, accomplishes promises
and inspires its people to be a partner in development grows tremendously. One of the
most recent approaches is the citizen’s charter initiative. This chapter of the report has
expounded on New Public Management as a theoretical anchor of many of these
approaches. As reviewed in this chapter, NPM espouses the use market or business
related principles and stresses the significance of customer or client orientation. People
have been clamouring for a type of governance that uses resources efficiently, answers
and stands to decisions made for the institution, serves with integrity, and involves people
in running the affairs of the state. Good governance platform is what many of the public
sectors reform initiatives claims it is anchoring on.
As an approach, citizen’s charter has been pioneered in United Kingdom. The interest
about it and its influence spread in Europe and found it in the doors of African,
American, and Asian countries. The review of selected experiences Karnataka, India and
Yogyakarta, Indonesia showed how varied the experiences have been and the intrinsic
and extrinsic factors that led to its formulation and implementation. Both countries have
found inspiration from the model UK has exemplified. The findings from these countries
may well provide lessons to others aspiring to introduce another promising reform at the
local or national level. A research into this very same topic in a country such as the
Philippines, or any pioneering city for that matter may probably contribute to the
literatures of public service reform initiatives. Some questions that initially come to mind
were “how different is the experience of a pioneer city in Philippines in crafting its own
citizen’s charter in terms of objectives and processes; and what are the lessons and
considerations that may be surfaced from other countries experiences that may be useful
or applicable in local governments?”

However, Rose in Pollitt (1998 p.349) points a caveat in drawing lessons about
‘charterism’: “Borrowing a program that is effective in elsewhere is no guarantee of
success”. Any attempt to draw lessons from the experience of others must take full
account of the historical, cultural, social, economic, and political environment pertaining
to both the country seeking lessons and the countries whose experience is being
examined. In this way, we avoid the danger of ‘learning’ which is not easily transferable.
This research endeavours to explore the implementation of citizen’s charter outside the
UK and other European and non-European experiences where the political,
administrative and cultural context is highly different. Divergent to most of published
researches on citizen’s charter which exposes implementation at the national or central
level (i.e. formulation and implementation of citizen’s charter at the department/ministry
levels), this study intends to touch on citizen’s charter implementation in a specific city
government in the Philippines in the Asia Pacific. This dearth of studies at the micro
level, bottom up implementation is what this research hopes to contribute to.
2.6 Theoretical Background and Analytical Framework

Exploratory as it is, the findings of the research is analyzed within the ambit of New
Public Management and Good Urban Governance principles (Figure 1). Both theoretical
anchors are expressive of the intents and practices as well as the substance and form of
citizen’s charter. The NPM principles of market and citizen’s orientation, performance
management and results focus, as well as quality management are all depicting
approaches in citizen’s charter formulation and implementation. The outcome of the
institutionalization process of citizen’s charter is explained using the elements espoused
by Good Governance primarily transparency, accountability, participation, efficiency and
effectiveness. Having these as backgrounder Figure 2 illustrates a framework just how
exactly the research would be analyzed. Input variables therein enumerated from
legislation/policy existence to functional monitoring and evaluations were culled from
empirical cases with a few additions from the researcher himself. These input variables
contribute to the different processes associated with the development of citizen’s charter
which are then hypothesized to result into a transparent, accountable and quality service
delivery. Below are the succeeding illustrations showing all the factors or variables put
together that this research explored.

Figure 2: The Study’s Theoretical Background
New Public Management Good Urban Governance
Performance
Management
Government Transparency
Client Orientation
Accountability
Focus on Results
Efficiency
Quality
Management CITIZEN’S
Effectiveness
CHARTER
Market Participation
Orientation
Clients/Citizens
Figure 3:The Study’s Analytical Framework
Outcome
Input (IV) Throughput Output
(DV)
Legislation/ Policy
Institutional Structure
Resource Allocation/ Effectiveness
Availability
Leadership Style/ Support Naga
Formulation
and Motivation • Transparency
Implementation
Attitude and Citizen’s
Awareness Institutionalization
• Accountability
Accessibility Charter
Participation
Capacity Building • Quality
Systems Employed
Monitoring and Evaluation

Chapter 3: Research Methodology
3.1 Research Area

Figure 4: Map of the Philippines
The research is undertaken in the landlocked City showing Naga City
of Naga located in the province of Camarines Sur
in the Bicol Region. Bicol is the fifth region in the
Philippines. Naga City is an independent
component city. It is one of the fastest growing
cities in the Bicol region which is 377 kilometers
away from Manila, the country’s capital. Inspite
being a small size densely populated urban city,
Naga is the commercial, financial, educational,
religious and cultural center of the Bicol region.
Residents of the city are called Nagueños. At the
helm of leadership is a locally elected Mayor –
Jesse M. Robredo, seconded by his Vice Mayor
Gabriel Bordado Jr,. Naga City is at the core of
Metro Naga comprising of 14 adjacent
municipalities. The city occupies 8,448 hectares
and comprises 27 barangays (villages) with a total
population of 157,087 (as of 2008). These
barangays include Abella, Bagumbayan Norte,
Bagumbayan Sur, Balatas, Calauag, Cararayan,
Carolina,Concepcion Grande, Concepcion
Pequeña, Dayangdang, Del Rosario, Dinaga, Igualdad, Lerma, Liboton, Mabolo, Pacol,
Panicuason, Peñafrancia, Sabang, San Isidro, San Felipe, San Francisco, Sta. Cruz,
Tabuco, Tinago and Triangulo.
3.2 Research Framework

This research was undertaken in five main stages illustrated below (Figure 5). During the
proposal preparation, the research objectives and initial hypothesis were formulated as a
result of preliminary literature review and consultation with thesis supervisor. The
development of analytical/conceptual framework followed together with the formulation
of appropriate research instruments. The primary and secondary data collection was
undertaken during the specified field work. Data collected from field work were
consolidated, analyzed and interpreted. Results were thoroughly analyzed and written
following the thesis content outline. And finally research conclusions were drawn as well
as recommendations for the city government service improvement.

Figure 5: Research Framework
Research Background Data Collection

Problem Definition Administration Office
Survey questionnaire
Formulation of
Research Questions Interview of Key
Informants
Firming up Research
Objectives and Facilitation of Focus
Hypothesis Group Discussion
Administration of Client
Survey
Review of Literature Securing of Relevant
Secondary Materials
Development of
Analytical Framework Photo documentation
Determination of
Research Methods
Development of
Research Instruments
Conclusion Data Analysis

and Results and
Recommendation Write-up Interpretation
3.3 Research Design

This research looks into the features, characteristics, approaches in formulation,
implementation and institutionalization of citizen’s charter of a city government in the
Philippines and its relationship with the intended or unintended outcomes. This
necessitated a holistic case study strategy that employed various data collection
techniques described below to generate as much information, insights, perception about
the formulation and implementation of citizen’s charter. The research aims to explore the
pioneering initiative of a local government to introduce local governance reforms in the
area of service delivery.

Table 2: Research Dimensions and Applications
Dimensions Application Details
Research Type Exploratory Largely describing the phenomenon and
exploring the possible relationship of
variables or factors associated
Research Strategy Case Study Embedded Single Case
With multiple units of analysis
Kind of Data Qualitative Analysis Obtaining in-depth data on perception,
Analysis attitude and behaviors
Unit of analysis City of Naga Multiple units:
For the Client Survey: office clients
For the Office Survey: office
implementers
For the Key Informant Interview: key
personalities
For the Focus Group Discussion: key
personalities
Data Collection Techniques and Research Respondents

Bearing in mind the exploratory intent of this study, the research is primarily qualitative
in nature. The field work was done from July 1 to 30, 2009. A pre-testing of research
instruments with clients and staff was undertaken in the
Figure 6: Map of Camarines initially proposed research locale, a city in Metro
Sur showing Naga City
Manila. Upon interview with the City Citizen’s Charter
Deputy Team Leader, the researcher decided to move to
Naga City upon learning that the initially proposed city
has benchmarked its citizen’s charter formulation with
the City of Naga in Bicol Region. Henceforth, an
introductory letter was faxed to the Office of the Naga
City Mayor stating the request for data collection in the
city. Also sent was the introduction letter from the IHS,
EUR certifying the field work and need for thesis data
collection. Coordination with Office of the Mayor and
follow up ensued. A briefing meeting with research
associates was done to familiarize them with the
research objective and the research instruments that
were consequently administered. Primary data collection
was undertaken using four methods described below.
1. Interview with Key Informants and Focus Group Discussion. Interviewees

included the following: the City Mayor; the Planning and Development
Coordinator; the Human Resource Management and Development Officer; the
Information Officer/Chief Naga City Visitors Center; the Local Civil Registrar;
the Division Chief, Business Permit and Licenses – City Treasurers Office; the
Citizen’s Charter Manager/ Executive Director, Naga City Investment Board; the
Chairperson, Naga City People’s Council (NCPC); and the President, Metro Naga
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI). The interviews were done inside
their respective offices and outside the city hall premises. Interview Guides were
prepared and customized for each respondent (please see Annexes A, B, C). An
FGD was facilitated with three of these informants. These methods were
undertaken to generate deeper insights and details not otherwise available in other
methods.
2. Office Survey. Two frontline offices were selected on the basis of the following
criteria: degree of public interface; level of public demand; and magnitude of
impact. Basing on these criteria, the 12 staff from Local Civil Registry (LCR) and
the Business Permit and 18 staff from Licensing Division (BPLD) were included
as respondents of office survey. The whole office staff except the office heads
became the complete respondents of Office Survey Questionnaire (please see
Annex D). The office survey was undertaken to gather insights, attitudes and
behaviours of staff toward their work and functions.
3. Client Survey. To complement the office survey and informant’s interview
methods, a client survey was administered to these very same offices - Local Civil
Registry (LCR) and the Business Permit and Licensing Division (BPLD). Fifty
(50) respondents from BPLD and another fifty (50) respondents from LCR were
included in this research. The client survey (please see Annex E) primarily
intended to generate the perception of clients on city government services.
4. Observation. Unobtrusively, observation was employed to generate insights on
processes and systems used by the city government. Care was ensured during the
first week of data gathering so that both the frontliners and clients would not know
they are being observed to avoid action bias. The courtesy call with Office of the
Mayor coincided the date of actual interview with the local chief executive.
Thereafter, courtesies and appointments were made with key informants.
As to secondary data collection, Document Review/Study was done to review the
present edition of the Naga City Citizen’s Charter, the State of the City Address (SOCA),
and other literatures on citizen’s charter primarily that of Indonesia and India, and other
related documents. The Naga City official website was frequently visited to verify
information gathered during the fieldwork, especially those mentioned by key informants.

Table 3: Matrix of Research Objectives and the Data Gathering Techniques
Research Objectives Primary data gathering techniques and instruments Secondary

Key Client Focus Office Observati Document
Informant Survey Group Survey on Review
Interview (CS) Discussion (OS) (DR)
(KII) (FGD)
9 9 9 9
Obj. 1: Investigate the
strategies or approaches in the
implementation and
institutionalization of citizen’s
charter.
9 9 9 9 9
Obj 2: Examine how open
and accessible are the
information and standards set
in the citizen’s charter.
9 9 9 9 9
Obj 3: Analyze the sufficiency
of accountability mechanisms
and management approaches
set in the citizen’s charter
9 9 9 9 9 9
Obj 4: Assess the level of
quality of services rendered by
the city government.
The above matrix indicates the techniques and instruments that were used per research
objective. Objective four made use of all primary and secondary techniques in this
research. The data generated from these data gathering methods have been cross
validated to check consistency and validity of responses.
Figure 7:The Case Study’s Framework
Key Informant
DATA SOURCES
Client Survey Office Related Case

Interview Survey Studies
Perception of Public Service Delivery

(Business Permit & Licensing and Civil Registry Services )
METHODS
Analysis of Effectiveness of City Citizen’s Charter

Drawing of Implementation/ Institutionalization Factors
Assessment and Recommendations for

Improvement of Naga Citizen’s Charter
OUTPUTS
City Government City Government City Government

Process Transparency Output Accountability Service Quality

Given the premises and assumptions discussed, above is the illustrative framework of the
Case Study approach which guided the researcher in this study. A case study is an
empirical investigation of a particular phenomenon in real life context (Van Dijk 2006).
It details the sources of data that generated the perception of city hall clients, the city
government frontliners, and selected key informants on the city public services more
specifically the local civil registry and business permit and licensing services per
declaration in the Naga City Citizen’s Charter. Perception on effectiveness of the
program was analyzed along three extrinsic variables – transparency, accountability and
quality of services. Alongside, factors and insights were drawn to form part of the
assessment and recommendations for the city’s service delivery improvements.
3.4 Operational Definitions, Research Variables and Indicators

Below is a table defining and operationalizing the major terms used in this research.
Table 4: Terms Definition and Operationalization

Term Definition Operationalization
Transparency as building on free flow information, where Providing clear information
processes, institutions and information are (standards, contacts,
directly accessible to those concerned with names, fees & charges,
them (TUGI-UNDP). etc.) that allows clients to
make an informed choice
“sharing information, and acting in an open on how to transact with the
manner. It allows stakeholders to gather city government.
information that may be critical to
uncovering abuses and defending their
interests. Transparent systems have clear
procedures for public decision making and
open channels of communication between
stakeholders and officials” (UNDP)
Accountability as answerability of decision makers in Providing mechanisms

government, the private sector and civil such as feedback,
society organizations to the public or complaints, redress etc. that
institutional stakeholders (TUGI-UNDP). allow citizens’ to submit
feedback, make comments
“requirement that officials answer to and demand for action,
stakeholders on the disposal of their power correction, and redress.
and duties, act on criticisms or requirements
made of them and accept responsibility in
case of failure, incompetence.
Accountability involves adhering to a set of
established criteria and using these to
measure the performance of officials and
estimate economic and financial outputs. It
requires the following pre-requisites:
freedom of information, stakeholders who
are able to organize; and rule of law
(UNDP)”

Term Definition Operationalization
Quality • Characteristics that are important to Striving to meet the
customers – Deming important requirements and
• Fitness for use – JM Juran satisfaction (expectations)
• The total composite product and service of clients laid out in the
characteristics of marketing, citizen’s charter that allows
engineering, manufacturing, and citizens to enjoy the
maintenance through which the product products and services
and service in use will meet the
expectations of the customer - A. V.
Feigenbaum
• Quality is conformance to requirements
- P. Crosby
• Quality is the totality of features and
characteristics of a product or service
that bear on its ability to satisfy stated
or implied needs - ISO
Effectiveness as processes and institutions producing Accomplishing target

and efficiency results that meet needs while making the outputs and results within
best use of resources (TUGI-UNDP). the allotted means.
Below are the details of the indicators and the propositions casted per research objective,
both for input and outcome variables.
Table 5: Matrix of Input Variables, Indicators, Propositions and Sources of Data

Research Phase of Independent Initial Indicators Sources of Data
Objective Citizen’s Variables Propositions/
Charter (Input) Hypothesis
Obj. 1 Formulat Institutional Creation of Creation of KII/FGD-City
Investigat ion of the Structure committee/task committee/ Officials
e the Citizen’s force or any ad task force/ ad Document
strategies Charter hoc body hoc body Review
or facilitates
approache activities related
s in the to formulation
implement Legislation/Pol Presence of Release of city KII/FGD-City
ation and icy legislation/policy ordinance/ Officials
institution jumpstarts Issuance of Document
alization formulation of CC executive Review
of order/special
citizen’s order
charter. Top Leadership Pronouncements Verbal or KII/FGD-City
Support and and presence in written Officials
Motivation activities enhances pronouncemen Document
the motivation of t Review
task force and Presence in
staff CC related
activities
Resource Allocation of Provision of KII/FGD-City
Allocation resources signifies financial Officials
that LGU is resources Document
serious about the (project Review
initiative budget)
Participation Involvement of Role played Client’s Survey
citizens increases KII-
ownership/accepta Business/People’
nce of the process s Association
and the output Document
arising from it Review
Impleme Awareness of Frontline staff’s Knowledge of Office Survey
ntation of the frontline knowledge of CC the CC in Document
the staff in general and the general and the Review
citizen’s office standards in office service KII/FGD-City
charter particular standards in Officials
indicates first particular
level
accountability.
Attitude of Motivation of Motivation of Office Survey
frontline staff frontline staff frontline staff Document
affects the quality Enthusiasm of Review
of services Office KII/FGD-City
rendered. Officials
The enthusiasm of
the office affects
the quality of the
services rendered.
Capacity The adequacy of Number of Office Survey
building the capacity orientations/ Document
building positively training/semina Review
affects the rs attended KII/FGD-City
delivery of Officials
services.
Systems The imposition of Number of Office Survey
employed administrative rewards given Document
punishments and Number of Review
granting of awards punishments KII/FGD-City
reinforce quality imposed Officials
service delivery.
Accessibility The greater the Means of Office Survey
and Awareness variety of information Document
information accessed Review
mechanisms the KII/FGD-City
higher the level of Officials
awareness of
public.
Top Leadership Output/performan Style of Office Survey
Style ce orientation of leadership Document
the top leadership (output Review

reinforces oriented, KII/FGD-City
accountable, performance, Officials
transparent and participative,
quality delivery of etc)
services.
Resource Resource Access to Office Survey
availability availability available Document
induces complete resource Review
and accurate KII/FGD-City
services. Officials
Institutio Management The presence of Monitoring KII/FGD-City
nalizatio Approaches monitoring and and Evaluation Officials
n of evaluation Mechanisms Document
Citizen’s mechanism (tools/instrume Review
Charter strengthens city nts; regularity
government of conduct;
accountability. reporting of
results)
Legislation/ The presence of Signed KII/FGD-City
Policy signed legislation ordinance or Officials
signals law Document
sustainability of Review
program
Table 6: Matrix of Outcome Variables, Propositions, Indicators and Sources of Data

Overall Research Dependent Initial Indicators Sources of Data
Objective Variables Propositions/
(OUTCOME) Hypothesis
Client Survey
Obj 2: Examine Transparency The openness and Clarity of Office Survey
how open and accessibility of requirements KII/FGD-City
accessible are the information and Officials
information and standards allows KII-
standards set in the awareness of the Business/People’s
citizen’s charter. public on citizen’s Association
charter to flourish. Document Review
Observation
Posting of Client Survey

procedures Office Survey
KII/FGD-City
Officials
KII-
Business/People’s
Association
Document Review
Observation
Display/specific Client Survey

ation of fees and Office Survey
charges KII/FGD-City
Officials
KII-
Business/People’s
Association
Document Review
Observation
Client Survey
Obj 3: Analyze the Accountability The presence of Display of Office Survey
accountability functional names of KII/FGD-City
mechanisms feedback, frontline/officers Officials
established in the complaints and KII-
citizen’s charter redress Business/People’s
mechanisms Association
reinforce Document Review
institutionalization Observation
of the citizen’s
charter. Presence of Client Survey
functional Office Survey
feedback and KII-/FGD City
complaint Officials
mechanisms KII-
. Business/People’s
Association
Document Review
Presence of Client Survey

functional Office Survey
redress KII/FGD-City
mechanism Officials
KII-
Business/People’s
Association
Document Review
Client Survey
Obj 4: Assess the Quality Perceived quality Accessibility of Office Survey
level of quality of of public services service KII/FGD-City
services rendered affects the Officials
by the city satisfaction/approv KII-
government. al rating of the Business/People’s
public. Association
Document Review
Observation
Accuracy of Client Survey

service Office Survey
KII/FGD-City
Officials
KII-
Business/People’s
Association
Document Review
Observation
Pleasantness of Client Survey
staff Office Survey
KII/FGD-City
Officials
KII-
Business/People’s
Association
Document Review
Observation
Comfortability Client Survey

of Office Survey
office/transactio KII/FGD-City
n area Officials
KII-
Business/People’s
Association
Document Review
Observation
Equality of Client Survey

treatment Office Survey
KII/FGD-City
Officials
KII-
Business/People’s
Association
Document Review
Observation
Timeliness Client Survey

Office Survey
KII/FGD-City
Officials
KII-
Business/People’s
Association
Document Review
Observation
3.5 Validity and Reliability

A detailed field work plan and schedule was devised prior to going into the research area.
Largely considering the overall research timeframe and limitations, the field work
plan/schedule enumerated or specified the steps, activities, outputs and responsible
persons and timeframe. Given change in research locale, the time targets have been
adjusted.

Similarly, prior to fieldwork, and in consultation with the Thesis Supervisor, the variables
and the relationships between and among them were firmly established before
reproduction of data gathering instruments. Results of pre-test was incorporated in the
final survey questionnaires and interview guides.
The Client and Office Survey Questionnaires were pre-coded; numbered; and packaged
well for Research Assistants and the hired Field Enumerator (FE). A pre-testing was
conducted with clients, and the client survey questionnaire was translated in Tagalog, a
local dialect. A necessary Research Assistant and Field Enumerator briefing and meeting
were facilitated by the Researcher before deploying them for field work. The Researcher
was the one who personally interviewed all interviewees. The research associates helped
assist during Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and client interviews.
Similarly, the KII Guide Question was pre-tested for comprehension and this was done by
having a colleague participate in a simulated question and answer activity wherein
ambiguities were noted down and necessary improvements were made. After interview
with the CC Deputy Team Leader in the earlier proposed locality, final adjustments to
interview guide questions were done.
On validity, careful scrutiny was done to ensure that the study measures the variables that
it intends to evaluate and ambiguities are checked. A matrix was developed to ensure the
one to one correspondence of objective, variables and indicators. They are matched in
every instrument developed hence a triangulation of results can be expected from Client
Survey, Office Survey, KII and documents review.
3.6 Limitations of the Research

The intention of the research strategy is to cover as much elements or factors as it could
in the formulation, implementation and institutionalization of the citizen’s charter in the
city. It desires to pinpoint the areas where the effect or influence of charter may have
been very or less significant. It is however restrained by some inherent factors such as
time and resource limitations. As such the study was not able to cover the entire
departments/offices of the city and samples of clients in each of the departments but
nonetheless covered two representative offices and their respective clients based on
criteria earlier mentioned. This provided valuable insights and perceptions on the
variables this research looked at. The research was also qualitative in nature and gave a
discussion of relevant factors found in desk review and during field work. It did not
endeavour to proceed to a more quantitative analysis which may be an agenda for
succeeding research work on citizen’s charter implementation at city level ascertaining
for example the level of satisfaction of citizens on all or selected city government
services or products.
3.7 Research Timeframe

The research has been conducted for four months starting June 2009 which saw the
preparations and finalization of design and development of research instruments. The
month of July was allotted for data gathering and collection (field work in Naga City),
data tabulation and initial consolidation. The succeeding months of August and
September proceeded for the data analysis, data write-up, research findings presentation,
refinements, defence and thesis report submission.
3.8 Resource Requirements

Based on the research design and the demand of identified data gathering techniques, the
research undertaking required the following major expenses: hiring of research
associates; field enumerator; field work paraphernalia and supplies; accommodation,
transportation; communication; meetings and miscellanea.

Chapter 4: Research Results and Analysis
This section of the report analyzes the findings of the primary and secondary data
collection. The first part will relate the findings of the desk review and the second part will
reveal the findings of the field work. The presentation and discussion follow the flow of
research questions discussed in Chapter One. This chapter primarily intends to build up
evidences that would point to or refute the extent of influence of citizen’s charter in
improving or enhancing transparency, accountability and quality of service delivery in Naga
City.
4.1 Desk Review Findings

The review of Naga City Citizen’s Charter document necessitated the formulation of certain
criteria so that the initiative would be evaluated based on applicable and objective
parameters. The researcher finds it difficult to assess a pioneering effort of a city without
setting some measures that are appropriate for academic purposes yet yielding practical
considerations. Here is where the minimum parameters set by the Anti-Red Tape Act
(ARTA) of 2007 are used. In addition, this review also adopted the criteria developed by
Public Affairs Center (PAC) in 2005 particularly grievance redress mechanism and citizen
friendly criteria in evaluating a charter. PAC has done an evaluation of the State of
Karnataka’s Citizen’s Charters to ascertain whether charters live up to their intended
objectives of informing citizens about the standards of service provided by a department.
These two sets of criteria are discussed in detail below.
At the minimum, the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the ARTA 2007
requires the following information from frontline service providing offices in government
agencies including local governments, government owned and controlled corporations,
departments, bureaus:
1) Vision and mission of the government office or agency;
2) Identification of the frontline services offered and the clientele;
3) The step by step procedure to obtain a particular service;
4) The officer or employee, responsible for each step;
5) The maximum time to conclude the process;
6) Documents to be presented by the client, with clear indication of the relevancy of
said document/s;
7) The amount of fees if necessary;
8) The procedure for filing complaints in relation to requests and applications,
including the names and contact details of officials/channels to approach for redress;
9) Allowable period for extension due to unusual circumstances, i.e. unusual events
beyond the control of concerned government office or agency; and
10) Feedback mechanisms, contact numbers to call and persons to approach for
recommendations, inquiries, suggestions, as well as complaints.
In addition, the IRR requires that the citizen’s charter be in the form of billboards and in the
form of published materials written in English, Filipino, or in local dialect.
On the other hand, the PAC developed assessment criteria on grievance redress
mechanism requires the charter should contain the following information:
1) When (i.e. under what circumstances) to complain;
2) Where to lodge complaint (name and address of office);
3) Designation of Nodal Officer (grievances);
4) How to complain (format of complaint);
5) Time limit for response;
6) Assurance of action taken provided to complainant; and
7) Acknowledgment given.
The ‘citizen friendly criteria’ developed by the PAC indicates the following as
information that should be included in the citizen’s charter:
1) A compensation clause
2) A provision for consultation with users to gauge their satisfaction;
3) A provision for updating the charter;
4) A commitment of staff courtesy and helpfulness towards citizens;
5) Description of the role/ obligation of citizens
6) Periodic review to ensure proper implementation of charter;
7) Year of publication;
8) Information on where copies of the charter are available;
9) Availability in multiple languages – is the charter available in just the local
language or English or both?
10) Simplicity of language – is the language simple?
11) Length of the charter – is the document too long?
The Naga Citizen’s Charter Guidebook on City Government Services is now on its third
edition. The latest release is the January of 2009 edition. It contains 140 city government
services (10 services more from last edition) for various clients and customers. The 150
page document is divided into five main parts: Part 1 – About Citizen’s Charter
(Introduction, The I-Governance Program, How to Use this Guidebook); Part 2 – Maps
and Vision Statement (Map of the Naga City Government Complex, Vision and Mission
Statement); Part 3 – Growth Oriented Services; Part 4 – Equity Enhancing Services; Part
5 – Performances Pledges of City Government Departments and Offices; Part 6 –
Service Campaigns and Awards (international, national, regional and individual) ; and
Part 7- Directory, Governance Ordinance and Feedback Forms.
The following discusses the key finding using the above discussed criteria.
4.1.1 Minimum Requirements Criteria
Whether the charter contains information on:
a) Vision and mission 9
b) Identification of the frontline services offered and the clientele 9
c) The step by step procedure 9
d) The officer or employee, responsible for each step 9
e) The maximum time to conclude the process (per step, and the total 9
transaction time)
f) Documents to be presented by the client, with clear indication of 9
the relevancy of said document/s
g) The amount of fees if necessary 9
h) The procedure for filing complaints in relation to requests and 9
applications, including the names and contact details of
officials/channels to approach for redress
i) Allowable period for extension due to unusual circumstances, i.e. X
unusual events beyond the control of concerned government
office or agency
j) Feedback mechanisms, contact numbers to call and persons to 9
approach for recommendations, inquiries, suggestions, as well as
complaints.
Total 9/10
The above table shows that almost all of the criteria set by the national mandate are met
except for information that conveys a ‘disclaimer’ type of notice to the public for
circumstances beyond the city government control. This situation is also mentioned by a
respondent who said, “except during typhoons, I would be able to meet the standards we
have set in our office”.
Box 2: What the Mayor Says About the Charter: “it’s a way of engaging”
“It’s a way of engaging, meaning the charter is a document by which we would be made to answer, for the
things we do here in City Hall, in terms of standards (response time, availability..). But that is not the ultimate
goal. The ultimate goal is to have a medium by which you would be able to engage, so that that we can build a
system … a feedback/ communication mechanism. That these are the things we can do, what do you think
about it? It’s not just measuring ourselves. It’s more than a performance measurement related tool, and more
than measuring our performance and our efficiency. It’s a way of communicating. It’s the main principle of the
charter. That the processes are made clear to everyone. If the system is very transparent, then the people will
know where the hitches are. They can say: you can improve here and there, etc.. Meaning people are included
in our improvement system. Instead of us dictating our standards (this is how we do it). We tell them (the
clients) let’s discuss how. Probably there is better way. It’s not a process driven, supplier driven arrangement,
we want it to be client-driven. In terms of getting feedback, in terms of taking to task if we don’t meet the
standards, in terms of continually improving the system”.
-- Mayor Jesse M. Robredo
Naga City
4.1.2 Grievance Redress Mechanism Criteria

1) When (i.e. under what circumstances) to complain 9
2) Where to lodge complaint (name and address of office) 9
3) Designation of Nodal Officer (grievances) 9

4) How to complain (format of complaint) 9
5) Time limit for response 9
6) Assurance of action taken provided to complainant 9
7) Acknowledgment given 9
Total 7/7
One important element of a ‘good’ citizen’s charter is a functional grievance redress

mechanism. This pertains to the system by which the organization seriously responds to
complaints lodge in their office. The satisfaction of the customer is not fully attained by
accomplishing the procedures set in the complaint mechanism; the action of the
organization on the submitted complaint is what the clients are after for. Remedies for
inaction, sub-quality service, delay or whatever is important to clients as this affects the
trust and confidence of the public towards the city government in general and the civil
servants in particular.
The charter indicates four specific grievance related complaints with corresponding
steps and procedures how to avail it. These specific cases include: Complaints against
violations of trimobile drivers and operators; Complaints against illegal vending;
Building-related Complaints; and Sanitation-related Complaints. All of which indicates
the time of response and the point person to approach. All other types of complaints
(city government operations related) are entertained through email and text messaging.
As to email, the complainant may send directly to concern office/department and would
have to copy furnish the City Mayor and the I-Governance Team (using the email
address therein indicated) for monitoring purposes. A reply will be made within 24
hours from receipt of email. And then the Mayor calls the attention of the office
concerned; and coordinates efforts to address the complaint.
As to complaints/suggestions sent through text messages, the complainant may text to
0917 TXTNAGA or 0917-89866242 and the message will be routed to the city
government’s dedicated SMS server. A pre-composed message will be received via text
to acknowledge receipt of complaint. Threads of received messages, as well as office
replies are kept to monitor whether action on complaints had already been taken. Again,
action and/or reply will be made within 24 hours upon receipt of message.
4.1.3 Citizen Friendly Criteria

1) A compensation clause X
2) A provision for consultation with users to gauge their satisfaction X
3) A provision for updating the charter 9
4) A commitment of staff courtesy and helpfulness towards citizens 9

5) Description of the role/ obligation of citizens X
6) Periodic review to ensure proper implementation of charter 9
7) Year of publication 9
8) Information on where copies of the charter are available X
9) Availability in multiple languages X
10) Simplicity of language 9
11) Length of the charter 9
Total 6/11
The table above shows the areas where the Naga Citizen’s Charter may have been lacking.
One is the provision for compensation. This concept pertains to the practice in the UK and
India where payment for promise serviced not delivered in time is accorded to client. This
financial approach to redress is something not mentioned in the Naga City Citizen’s
Charter. Though validation confirms (during field work that non-financial redress approach
is being practised in the city). There is question on whom should the payment come from –
the staff remised of duty or from the concerned office. And if from office, which budget
item in the office should it be charged. This concept is undoubtedly new if not unknown
practise in the country where in fact the services being rendered are income generating
sources of revenue for local governments. The provision for consultation with users to
gauge their satisfaction is also not mentioned in the charter document per se. But in practise
as mentioned by interviewees, the Naga City Peoples Council (NCPC) as an organized
umbrella of all sectoral groups in the city are always consulted not only on the contents and
updates of the charter but on the whole governance strategy and programs of the city.
There is also no highlighting of the role/ obligation of citizens in the charter. While it
contains information on what clients need to have or secure before transacting with
specified windows as far as requirements to avail the services are concerned, there is no
mention of the equal responsibility of the citizens to make the charter as a contract work.
While the Mayor also exhorts the cooperation of the citizens to continuously build a more
effective, efficient and responsive city hall for them, the charter does not indicate the
specific actions a responsible Nagueno should exemplify. The charter does not indicate
information on where hard copies of the charter are available. Although in reality, the
digital version of the charter (NetServe) is available at www.naga.gov.ph wherever and
whenever there is access to internet and the performance pledge is posted in almost all
offices. At present the latest edition has published a limited number of copies because of
some financial constraints. And lastly, the charter is not yet available in multiple languages.
At the very least, it is published in English and the attempt to translate it in the local dialect
has not been very fruitful.

Box 2: What the Naga City Chamber of Commerce Thinks about Citizen’s Charter: “it’s
like a contract of the government and the constituents”
“It is a living testimony of how empowered the residents is by having a document that gives rights
to citizens to demand certain standards of services. More than efficiency and effectiveness,
it is like a contract of the government and the constituents which grants
the right to expect standards in basic city services.”
-- Mr. Alberto Bercasio
President, Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry
4.2 Field Work Findings

The field investigation was done at the city level and this basically was carried out using
Office Survey (LCR and BPLD) to determine the knowledge and perceptions of staff on
citizen’s charter formulation and implementation while the Client Survey was made to
complement perception of the same from the customer’s perspective. The Business
Permit and Licensing Division performs the permit and license processing, inspection,
tax collection functions related to business establishments within the city. The Local
Civil Registry on the other hand, maintains and updates records of births, deaths,
marriages and status of persons in the city. The key informant interview and focus group
discussion with the office chiefs and I-Governance Program Team Leader, the Mayor
and selected stakeholders were undertaken to draw a deeper understanding of the city’s
intentions and experiences including personal insights on city charter implementation.
Succeeding are salient findings presented along the main research questions and the
variables that come with it.
4.2.1 Strategies and Approaches Employed in Formulating

Implementing and Institutionalizing the Citizen’s Charter
4.2.1.1 Formulation of the Citizen’s Charter
This section explores the factors and circumstances that led to the formulation of the
citizen’s charter of the city. These factors include: institutional structure;
legislation/policy; top leadership support/motivation; and resource allocation. There is
also a discussion on the challenges and obstacles encountered and the facilitating
factors.
The Naga City Citizen’s Charter has its long roots from three important public service
reform programs - the Productivity Improvement Program (PIP); the Quality Service
Improvement Program (QSIP) and the Public Service Excellence Program (QSEP). The
PIP sought to employ private sector productivity strategies in a local government, the
QSIP intended to enhance service quality delivery in selected city departments and the
QSEP aimed to expand quality service consciousness throughout local bureaucracy.

4.2.1.1.1 Institutional Structure
At the time that the Mayor re-assumed the post as the local chief executive and envisioned
the launching of the charter as part of I-Governance Program he constituted the I-
Governance Team composed of Mr. Reuel Oliver (Electronic Data Processing Chief/Team
Leader); Mr. Willie Prilles (City Planning Development Coordinator); Ms. Teresita Zapata
(Human Resource Management Officer); Mr. Gil dela Torre (Secretary, City Legislative
Council); and Mr. Jose Perez (Visitor Center Chief). The composition was not based on
sectoral services but on who will give/facilitate the content. Conversely, the I-Governance
Expanded Team is composed of all department heads and office chiefs who are the content
and service process owners. The I-Governance Team was tasked to coordinate and fast
track the finalization and publication of the charter (including updating of the Performance
Pledge which is an equally important component of the charter) in time for its launching
on the City’s Charter Day in December 2001. The creation of this ad hoc group facilitated
the important activities of the citizen’s charter.
Box 3: What an Office Head Says About How the Standards Came About and the
Processes They Through: “all about the desire for service delivery improvement.”
“ARTA 2007 says there should be service standards. If we are asked how we came up with it, we say, we
are lucky. We didn’t start from scratch. We started in 1990s. It started with Productivity Improvement
Program (PIP). The concept is systems change and people change. Where would the push come from?
The best push is from the people more than the mayor. So there came the Citizen’s Charter, a
transparency tool to see how the services are delivered. Also an equity building tool since services should
be known and delivered to all constituents regardless of status. And also a customer feedback tool, since
we say these are the services and so they ask where they are. This is all about service delivery
improvement.”
– Mr. Reuel Oliver
Executive Director, Naga City Investment Board, and Chief, Electronic Data Processing Unit
4.2.1.1.2 Legislation/Policy
As to formulation of the charter there was no formal executive order issued by the Mayor
but the marching order for I-Governance Team came during Management Committee
(ManCom) Meetings chaired by the local chief executive. It is during this time that all
department heads and office chiefs/ heads sit together in one table and discuss city
government affairs, programs and projects. As to the latest edition of the citizen’s
charter, the HRMO was this time tasked to spearhead the fast tracking of Naga City
Citizen’s Charter Third Edition. One interviewee mentioned that as a group, the I-
Governance Team is expected to provide content, update tools, and find other means to
further promote transparency. Implicitly, the team is mandated to spread the idea of the
charter and establish mechanisms of transparency between the government and the people.
Related to the citizen’s charter are two legislative issuances which make the citizen’s
charter a legitimate program of the city government. The presence of these ordinances
triggered the conscious and continuous implementation of the citizen’s charter. One is
Ordinance No. 97-002 or the “Naga City Productivity Improvement Program” authored by
Hon. Gabriel Bordado that institutionalizes the Naga City Productivity Improvement
Program. The activities under the program aim to “transform city government employees
into genuine public servants driven not by rules and regulations but by vision and
mission”. Specifically, to set response time in the delivery of services to its barest
minimum; to pursue specific projects and activities aimed at inducing and sustaining peak
productivity levels in all departments/offices; to encourage employees to come up with
viable ideas and suggestions to further improve productivity; to constantly upgrade the
skills and competence of employees through the regular conduct of seminars, workshops,
trainings and similar activities; to institutionalize a cost reduction system; and to set up a
feedback mechanism for the public.
Then the second is the “I-Governance Ordinance of Naga City” or Ordinance No. 2002-
063 authored by Hon. Mila SD Raquid-Arroyo and Hon Gabriel H. Bordado Jr. which is
the ordinance that strengthens people participation in local governance by establishing
mechanism of transparency through institutionalization of the I-Governance Program of
Naga City. The ordinance institutionalizes the setting up of citizen’s charter as document
indicating the standards of city government delivery and its digital version posted in the
Naga City official website. According to one interviewee the spirit of the ordinance is
“Inclusive Governance, getting individual citizens to involve itself in local governance;
Interactive Engagement in dialogues between authorities and the people; Information
Openness which empowers citizens; and Innovative Management, committing to sustained
creativity and innovation. I-Governance means getting push from the outside.”
4.2.1.1.3 Top Leadership Support and Motivation

The Mayor has always been very supportive of city undertakings. During Management
Committee (ManCom) Meetings he always asks for updates and developments from I-
Governance Team especially the Team Leader or assigned person. The Mayor makes it a
point to be at important Citizen’s Charter activities such as in one activity of the last
module of PSEP where the Mayor responded appropriately in the discussion on Service
Improvement Recommendation. He was one of the reactors who participated very well in
the activity. He also represents the city during dialogues and talks with stakeholders. The
I-Governance Team takes motivation and to a certain extent gets fulfillment from the
awards the city receives from external organizations/institutions who took notice of the
innovations and programs they developed and implemented. One interviewee remarked
“our motivation was not monetary in nature. We take pride at the feelings level, that we
are part of what can be said as successful and awarded program like the Citizen’s
Charter”. The physical presence of and the verbal support and monitoring from the Chief
Executive the I-Governance Team received enhanced their motivation and drive to work
for the citizen’s charter program.
4.2.1.1.4 Resource Allocation

There is an I-Governance Program Fund. One million pesos a year was being allotted for
the cost of charter production, updating of computer hardwares, and installation of
wireless internet infrastructure facility to enable access of four upland barangays on the
citizen’s charter (but not functional now). For the 3rd edition, there was a separate fund.
The city hopes to distribute one Citizen’s Charter copy per household. This is the target.

But because of constraints the city opted for strategic distribution: with NGOs, people’s
organization, barangay associations, parishes, chamber of commerce and schools and the
like. They also produced CD version of the citizen charter similar to what one can access
on the web.
Now, because the ARTA of 2007 which mandates allotment coming from Maintenance,
Operations, and Overhead Expenditures (MOOE) of the organization to citizen’s charter
implementation, about two million pesos can be allotted. But the estimation of
requirements according to one interviewee was more than. Their allocation is based on
five items: Trainings and Seminars; Naga City PIP; Information Technology; Business
One Stop Shop (BOSS); and the Citizen’s Charter. The allocation of resources for the
citizen’s charter even before this national guideline signifies that the city government is
serious in implementing and sustaining the program.
Previously an external fund assistance (coming from the Award the city received) was
utilized to support the wireless connection for upland barangays. The Naga City People’s
Council (NCPC) also has effort to access some funds intended for citizen’s charter.
4.2.1.1.5 Participation
The participation of people and stakeholders in almost all development undertakings is
sought for as a prerequisite to good governance. TUGI (2003) highlights participation as
having a voice in decision making either directly or through legitimate intermediate
institutions that represent their interest. Two such institutions are found in the research as
playing an important role in citizen’s charter program – the MNCCI and the NCPC.
The Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce Inc. (MNNCI) is an organized civil society group
has always been involved by the city government in its affairs and activities. In the city
councils and boards different sectors are involved. MNCCI, as one of these sectors is Co-
chair of the Naga City Investment Board and is a member of the Law and Order and the
Ways and Means. In the crafting of the charter, they were also involved by validating the
standards that have been drafted. They commented on what was not followed. During the
first edition of the Naga City Citizen’s Charter, particularly during the crafting of the
standards they asked the city government “What are really the processes or procedures”
and they shared their own expectations. NCPC was the facilitator then.
Box 4: What MNCCI Says About the Gains of Institutionalizing the Citizen’s Charter in
Naga City: “three things.”
“First is people’s involvement. Second is awareness that they own the government and that the
government is not independent or separate from them. And third is mindset that “I am the client”.
-- Mr. Alberto Bercasio
President, Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The Naga City People’s Council (NCPC) is an umbrella or federation of about a hundred
non-government and people’s organization (with about 11 basic sectors represented3)
operating and established in the city. NCPC is an active partner and critical collaborator of
the city government in city programs and projects either as beneficiaries, co-
implementor/planners, monitor, advocate or critique. For the citizen’s charter in particular
there are several roles they have explicitly played. During the formulation of the charter,
the Chairperson relayed they critiqued the output that was presented to them during one
consultation called by the city government. During this consultation the city government
asked them how the city processes and procedures can be improved and made better and
the NCPC suggested ways to enhance the processes. In the second edition, there have been
changes which the NCPC noticed such as improvement in processing time (15 to 10
minutes for example) as a result of their suggestions. The interviewee shares that the city
government is conscious of consulting them every time their sector will be affected by any
city program. “They knew that we have the right to be informed and that our opinions
matter in city programs”.
Many instances that came, where people who encountered problems, asked the NCPC to
relay the experiences they encountered in transacting with the city government (as to
declarations of the charter). These are monitored by NCPC. There is secretariat from
NCPC that receives calls and they prepare letter for the city to put across the message of
the people. NCPC does feedback this to the City in order for them to know, to check, to
correct things if the pledges are not being followed.
One sample comment received from member organization was for LCR. According to the
complaint, the time declared was not followed (for example: after 3 days a client came
back and it was not ready). These comments are sent thru Community Forum, Open line
of Mayor, TEXT Naga, and directly from NCPC to the office concern. If the complaint
raised is serious and heavy, they call and set appointment with the Department Head and
bring forth the issue of people. And if it is political they prepare a formal letter and they
ask for action. The interviewee relayed “it’s like a complaint but were just facilitating the
concern so they can explain what happened”.
The NCPC also took to task informing and disseminating to its members at the grassroots
not just the presence of citizen’s charter as part of the I-Governance program but also the
main contents/services of the charter and how to avail them. This they do as part of the
organizational strengthening thrust of the NCPC. The NCPC was also invited by the city
government during the launching of the third edition of the Naga City Citizen’s Charter.
3
NCPC started in 1989 but was only institutionalized in December 20, 1995 through the enactment of
Ordinance 95-092 or the Empowerment Ordinance that seeks to strengthen marginalized sectors of society
by providing them avenues to meaningfully engage the government. These sectors include Non
Government Organizations, Women, Peasant, Urban Poor, Labour, Youth, Student Councils,
Cooperatives, Business, Persons with Disabilities, and Barangay People’s Council.
Box 5: What NCPC Says About its Own Effort to Educate People on the Citizen’s Charter:
“to attain maximum people participation.”
“For NCPC, what we do is explain to our members especially the peasant sector. Member of the boards
took it as task to explain/inform the members about the Naga Citizen’s Charter. We also disseminate
information. Because we in NCPC believe we can better help make the charter understandable to our
members. Considering the fact that, the boards are concerned leaders. The city government cascades it to
barangay. As partner, we just take it as part our work to help explain to the people within our network
organization By doing so, we hope to attain maximum people participation (in the affairs of the city)”.
-- Ms. Glenda Dasco
Chairperson, Naga City People’s Council
In the research however, it was found that at the non-organized individual level Ninety
two percent (92%) of the clients surveyed claimed they have not been invited to
participate in the development of standards for Naga Citizen’s Charter. Similarly, ninety
two percent (96%) of the clients maintained they did not attend nor any of their family
members any orientation or forum related to citizen’s charter. This finding reveals that
there was no extensive consultation from ordinary un-organized individuals or city
residents.
Table 7: Client’s Knowledge of Invitation to Participate in the Development of

Standards for Naga City Citizen’s Charter and Client’s or Family Member’s
Attendance in Any Citizen’s Charter Orientation or Forum
Frequency Percentage Response Frequency Percentage

8 8.00 Yes, invited and attended 4 4.00
92 92.00 No, not invited, did not attend 96 96.00
4.2.1.1.6 Challenges and Obstacles Encountered

There is a number of what can be considered as obstacles that the I-governance Team
faced in pursuit of the citizen’s charter. One is haggling/ bargaining on the reduction of
time. There was fear on the part of the offices to commit what they thought they could not
deliver. Second is change of accountable persons. As times come by, there was turn-over
of accountable staff, so employee’s names need to be updated. There was the issue of
who to put: permanent person’s names or casual staff’s name. Third is meeting deadlines
of release. There was a ceremonial distribution day to beat. Although the digital version
was already uploaded in the Naga City official website, it took time for the publication
component to come out. The city also released CD version which were distributed to those
LGUs and interested parties (DILG, CSC, LGUs, WB, Asia Foundation, etc). Fourth is
target distribution. The concern is how to reach most number of people or households.
After the first edition, the plan was to put it in Bicol language and distribute to all
households but didn’t push through. Fifth is the form issue. Is it going to be in booklet or
book-form? Is it going to be handy or bulky? The city government is not selling the copies
of the charter. The third edition of the book form released only 1,000 copies because of
financial constraints.

Box 6: What a Division Chief Says About Challenges and Obstacles Encountered:
“eventually overcame all these.”
The hesitance of department/office heads and chiefs and indifference of staff. Eventually we overcame
these since they have been involved in the drafting. They eventually learned it’s better with citizen’s
charter. It has become part of the system later.
-- Ms. Gigi Nilda Abonal
Business Permit and Licensing Division Chief
4.2.1.1.7 Facilitating Factors

The interviewees shared a number of factors that led to citizen’s charter formulation. One
is the championing of the leader. The Mayor who provided directions, was the one who
really pursued to have this in book form and document the outputs of the city’s public
service improvement programs. Second is the assistance extended by US-AID ARD-
GOLD in QSEP and PSEP projects. Third is the materials and forms used during the
formulation which served as templates for drafting. Fourth is the team work of competent
staff, who laboured in the consolidation, coordination and technical editing. Fifth is the I-
Governance Ordinance which is the policy that institutionalized the charter. And sixth is
the people’s sense of demand which was the reason for charter and the present drive to
sustain the initiative.
Box 7: What an Office Head Says what Led the Citizen’s Charter Formulation and
Institutionalization: “confluence of factors”
“A confluence of factors may be mentioned that facilitated citizen’s charter formulation and its eventual
institutionalization: the Mayor who provided directions, competent staff, teamwork, the I-Governance,
Ordinance, and the people’s sense of demand”.
– Mr. Jose Perez
Naga City Visitor’s Center Chief
4.2.1.2 Implementation of the Citizen’s Charter
This section looks at various aspects and facets that feature the implementation of the
citizen’s charter in Naga City. These facets include awareness of frontline staff, attitude
of frontline staff, capacity building, systems employed, accessibility, civil society
participation, top leadership style, and resource availability.
4.2.1.2.1 Awareness of the Frontline Staff

Of the thirty frontline staff respondents surveyed from two sought after frontline service
offices – Business Permit and Licensing and the Local Civil Registry, 93% have
knowledge on the existence of citizen’s charter in the city government in general and their
offices in particular. This is a good indication of first level accountability which should be
complemented by supervisorial/ managerial level of accountability. The remaining seven
percent may be accounted for by the newly hired casual employees that should be given
orientation by the Human Resource Department. This finding is similar to Azizah’s (2008)
finding that frontline staffs in Yogyakarta City are not fully aware of the existence of
charter for ID.
The table below (Table 8) shows that staff perceives they are expected to be friendly,
render fair treatment, arrive on time and extend service hours more than departing on time
and wearing own ID. These traits however are not explicitly stated as behavioral
expectations either in the local ordinance or in the national law. Apparently, service
standards seem to require certain attitudinal and even behavioral complements in order to
be more effective.
Table 8: Staff’s Perceived Service Standards Expectations of him/her in Accomplishing

Task or Service
Standards Frequency Percentage

Friendliness 27 13.43
Fair Treatment 26 12.94
On time Reporting 25 12.44
Extended Service Hrs 25 12.44
Timeliness 22 10.95
Accuracy 22 10.95
Extra help 21 10.45
Wearing of own ID 17 8.46
On Time Departure 16 7.96
Note: multiple responses N: 201
4.2.1.2.2 Attitude of Frontline Staff

The five attitudinal statements of frontline staff revealed in Table 8 reflect a general
healthy attitude towards work and its working environment in relation to the city service
delivery function. Eighty three percent (83%) strongly agrees that his/her service is a
valuable contribution to the overall city public service while the remaining 17% agrees
with the statement. Combining both means that all respondents believe that their work is a
valuable contribution to city services. Majority (87%) of the respondents strongly disagree
that he/ she does not care about accomplishing or finishing his/her part of the office work.
Combining it with another segment of those who do not agree results to ninety percent
(90%) of the respondents are not indifferent/ callous to work in the office. One hundred
percent (100%) agrees that he or she is generally enthusiastic to come to office and do
his/her part of the work. Seventy percent (70%) of the respondents disagree that working
in the office is a mere obligation and that working city government is a choice. Sixty
seven percent (67%) of the respondents are motivated to work if they see other working
conscientiously. In Azizah’s study (2008), attitude of staff was measured in terms of the
‘greeting’ standard set in the charter and findings show in practice not all frontliners
always accomplish this standard. The attitude of frontline staff and the enthusiasm of the
office are important to determine as this affects the overall delivery of services and in
particular the compliance to standards set in the charter.

Table 9: Attitude of Frontline Staff towards Public Service and Work Environment
Attitude Statements Neither
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Agree Agree or
Disagree Agree
Disagree
Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %
“I believe that my service to our
clients is a valuable contribution
to the overall city public
service”. 5 16.67 25 83.33
“I don’t care if I am not able to
finish/accomplish my part of the
office work”. 26 86.67 1 3.33 1 3.33 2 6.67
“I am generally enthusiastic to
come to office and do my part of
the work”. 6 20.00 24 80.00
“I simply have no choice, I
report to office and fulfill my
part because I am obliged to”. 14 46.67 7 23.33 6 20.00 3 10.00
“I am motivated to work if I see
my officemates conscientiously
working”. 5 16.67 4 13.33 12 40.00 8 26.67 1 3.33
4.2.1.2.3 Capacity Building

Of the respondents covered in this research, 53% has confirmed attendance in an
orientation or training on citizen’s charter and claimed the knowledge they gained in these
trainings are being practiced now. This finding seems to indicate that not all have been
covered by a deliberate capacity building program for the offices covered by this study.
The research is of the opinion that the adequacy or for that matter, the coverage of
capacity building positively affects the delivery of services. In Azizah’s (2008) study, it
was found that while trainings have been conducted, the effects have not been long
lasting. Gradually staff did not practice ‘friendly service (prescribed greeting)’ when they
were in peak hours. Hence, she recommended that that a maintenance program be
instituted to sustain initial trainings. This program may include reward and punishment
mechanism, communication, monitoring and good supporting office facilities. Below is a
table of training themes and topics for the offices covered in this research. Respondents
perceived these to be helpful in the performance of their duty.
Table 10: Types of Capacity Building Perceived by Frontliners Helpful to Work

Business Permit and Licensing
Local Civil Registry
Division
GIS /IT-Related Trainings Civil Registrar Seminar
Enrichment Program/Career Development /Skills
Development Preservation of Civil Registry Documents
Modern Volumetric Calibration Seminar/Workshop IRR of RA 9255
Tax Revenue Code/ Business Taxation /Revenue
Collection/ Tax Collection Bookkeeping Records or Data Management
4.2.1.2.4 Systems Employed
A system of punishment and rewards exist in the city government. Sixty seven (67%)
percent of the respondents says punishment is applied in forms of reprimands, reminders
from higher authorities and bonus deduction if mistakes are committed. Surprisingly only
thirty percent (30 %) of the respondents experienced application of rewards if standards
are met or even beyond it. This takes the form of productivity incentives and receiving
letter of recommendation. This finding seems to indicate the reward complement of
administrative punishment is lagging behind. While there is an existing reward system,
clear integration of the reason for reward is not established among the consciousness of
frontliners. In Yogyakarta City (Azizah 2008) experience, reward system was not
integrated into citizen’s charter. No financial or non financial reward was attached to
performance of standards in the two charters they drafted. A purposeful punishment and
reward system that is anchored on the citizen’s charter should be able to reinforce the
quality of service delivery.
4.2.1.2.5 Accessibility and Awareness

Access to information is one critical element to ascertain the transparency of an
organization. Service providers have identified the following: Brochure/leaflets/flyers;
Citizen's Charter Publication; Notice/Bulletin Board, Poster; Naga City Website;
Advertisement in radio, TV, journal; and Seminar to Barangay Officials as the city’s
primary means by which they disseminate office services and products to the public. Table
below indicates which of these access points have been most notable to transacting clients.
Table 11: Client’s Sources of Information How to Avail Services in the City Hall
Sources of information Frequency Percentage

Frontline staff/ Service window 73 63.48
Brochure/leaflet/flyer 9 7.83
Naga City Website 9 7.83
Notice/Bulletin Board/Poster posted outside the office 4 3.48
Advertisement in radio/TV/journals 4 3.48
Naga City Citizen’s Charter publication 2 1.74
Others
Private companies (hospital) 4 3.48
General knowledge 3 2.61
Own Company/ Officemate 2 1.74
Other Government Agency 2 1.74
Barangay Office 2 1.74
Family/Relatives 1 0.87
Note: Multiple responses; N: 115

The above table shows that 63% of the client survey respondents accessed information
thru service windows and frontline staff. This is way above respondents who accessed
information thru the Naga City website (8%) and the Naga City Citizen’s Charter
publication (2%). This seems to indicate two things: that Naga City website and
Citizen’s Charter publication are not readily accessible or the means by which they
would be accessed is difficult to obtain; and that non-face to face mode of information
availability is not fully exploited. If such were the case, then it requires that a more
vigorous and purposive awareness program on citizen’s charter be considered if the city
government intends to spread awareness on the availability by which citizen’s can
access information on city governments services.
It is for this reason that staff thinks the services of their respective offices can further
disseminate information to public by: having house to house campaigns; encouraging
word of mouth transmission; having more activities e.g. mass registration or mobile
registration; publishing in local newspaper; barangay campaigns and
orientations/seminars/advisories; joint venture (e.g. with MNCCI, with regards to
disseminating concerns to business sector); and attending City Council session to
disseminate office concerns to barangay level leaders attending the session). One
respondent however believes their office has utilized all possible means helpful and that
their services and products are already a common knowledge among citizens. The
research is of the opinion that a great variety of information mechanisms increases the
chances of a more aware public.
Table 12: Client’s Awareness on the Existence of Citizen’s Charter as a City Government
Guidebook and Client’s Knowledge on the Existence of Standards Based on Naga City
Citizen’s Charter
Awareness Knowledge
on Naga City Citizen’s Charter as of the existence of standards in
City Government Guidebook Citizen’s Charter
Frequency Percentage Response Frequency Percentage
25 25.00 Yes, I know 23 23.00
75 75.00 No, I don't 77 77.00
Majority (75%) of the respondents in client’s survey is not aware of the existence of
Naga City Citizen’s Charter as a city government guidebook. Conversely, about seventy
seven (77%) of the clients surveyed do not know of any standard set based on the Naga
City Citizen’s Charter. This can be partly explained by admission of eighty nine percent
(89%) of them not receiving or acquiring hard copy of the citizen’s charter.
Eighty four percent (84%) of the clients surveyed stated they have not experienced
receiving unsatisfactory or unacceptable products or services. For the remaining sixteen
percent (16%), samples of unacceptable services are relayed below. Responses of
unacceptable services were not ascertained if it happened within the immediate period or
the past year.
1. refusal to sign fire clearance for not buying fire extinguisher with the accredited
supplier
2. discrepancy in tax declaration
3. wrong date in fire clearance
4. wrong spelling
5. could not locate signatories
6. unpleasant treatment towards clients
7. kept returning
8. presumed busy / disorganized filing / lost documents
9. no one manning the service window
10. lot of signatories / waiting for signatory
11. long processing
12. was not entertained
Interestingly, sixty percent (62%) of the clients are not willing to pay additional fee to
receive products/services directly at home or office and prefer to just wait and/or pick up
their documents. Only thirty seven (37%) of them are willing and one says it will depend
how much will be added to the fee. This alternative mode of delivering the product to
clients is something which the city government can consider offering to its clients. With a
fee that can be added to the total due the client, transacting public need not come back to
the city hall office to pick it up. The time savings and the convenience this offers the
clients may provide them more productive or leisure time and activities than waiting in the
city hall. Such a mode can be offered to the public for the types of product that would not
be produced at the day it was first applied for or requested, or services that would be
accomplished the next day or several days after.
One curious and sensitive question was asked of the clients transacting at the city hall.
This is whether or not the client has ever attempted to provide grease money in order to
finish/receive products or services ahead of the rest. It discloses that ninety percent (90%)
of the respondents did not make any attempt and about 10% did. The question however
did not probe deeper if out of this 10% attempt there was acceptance on the part of the
service providers. Such a condition, under existing laws will consummate a bribery which
constitutes a violation of the law.
4.2.1.2.6 Top Leadership Style

An attempt to explore the preference of leadership style of frontliners reveals that about
ninety percent (90%) of service providers/frontline staff agree that their office
heads/supervisors need to be more output/performance oriented while about fifty seven
percent (57%) disagrees with the Mayor being less output/performance oriented as
revealed by the table below.
Table 13: Attitude Towards the Office Head/Supervisor Being More Output/Performance
Oriented
Response Frequency Percentage

Strongly Disagree 1 3.33
Disagree 0 0.00
Agree 14 46.67

Strongly Agree 13 43.33
Neither Agree nor Disagree 1 3.33
No answer 1 3.33
These attitudes of the staff have implication with the present set of leadership in the city.
Staff prefers their immediate supervisors should be more aggressive and more
motivating and be output oriented for the whole office to be more productive. While the
Mayor on the other hand would have to maintain performance/output orientation type of
management in leading the city as shown in table below. This preference signals a
relationship between the output/performance orientation of top leadership and middle
managers/department heads with transparent, accountable and quality service delivery.
Azizah (2008) in her study found that the mayor and the leaders of the Citizen’s Charter
Forum have demonstrated strong commitment in citizen’s charter formulation and
implementation.
Table 14: Attitude Towards Mayor Being Less Output/Performance Oriented

Response Frequency Percentage
Strongly Disagree 12 40.00
Disagree 5 16.67
Agree 7 23.33
Strongly Agree 4 13.33
Neither Agree nor Disagree 1 3.33
No answer 1 3.33
4.2.1.2.7 Resource Availability

In terms of resource availability, fifty seven percent (57%) of staff perceives the supply
and equipment is insufficient to deliver and accomplish assigned tasks. They claim they
need more office supplies, more computers and new software, more filing cabinets, new
high technology equipment, and service/mobile vehicles to be able to function more
effectively. Azizah (2008) noted since the charter was aimed at shortening time needed
to deliver the services it means that there should be additional facilities to support the
charter. Even though staffs have changed their mindset when facilities are not well
managed may cause negative effect on the staff’s performance. This perception of the
staff is also reflected in the suggestions they have expressed when asked how they can
improve their services to the public. The research thinks that access to available
resources induce complete and accurate services.
4.2.1.3 Institutionalization of the Citizen’s Charter
This section delves on identifying the factors that make the citizen’s charter a continuing
and sustained initiative. Two of the factors looked into are the presence of a local and
national policy and the existence of a functional monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

4.2.1.3.1 Presence of Policy
One of the main concerns in any innovative or promising initiative in local governments,
especially in the country where local priorities shift together with the assumption of new
leaders, is the sustainability of a laudable program. The Naga City Citizen’s Charter as
one of the tools by which the city puts into practice its citizen centric governance is
sustained thru a policy embodied in a local ordinance. In 2002, an ordinance is enacted to
facilitate the meaningful participation of individuals in local governance through the
institutionalization of transparency inducing and feedback encouraging mechanisms. This
is Ordinance No. 2002-063 - An Ordinance Strengthening People Participation in Local
Governance by Establishing Mechanism of Transparency through Institutionalization of
the I-Governance Program of Naga City otherwise known as the “I-Governance Ordinance
of Naga City”.
The I-Governance nature and scope as contained in this ordinance says:

“a mechanism by which government transparency is facilitated
through information openness on matters affecting the affairs of
government. As a mechanism, it facilitates the establishment of a
government that is inclusive, interactive and innovative. An
inclusive and interactive government is one where the system of
governance encourages participation of both individuals and
groups by engaging them in a continuing dialogue and productive
partnerships towards the achievement of communal goals. An
innovative government is where the system of governance is
founded on a culture of excellence and thrives upon the unending
challenge of greater creativity and continuing innovations.
(Ordinance No. 2002-063)”.
The I-Governance Program is basically a two component program comprising of the

www.naga.gov.ph and the Naga City Citizen’s Charter. The former is the official internet
website of the city government providing relevant and salient information about the
operations of the city hall. The website in its current capacity informs the public of four
main themes: Sell Naga which contains city related information such as city profile,
indicators, statistics, resources, tourism attractions, investment opportunities and news
updates accessible through downloadable features, pictures, maps, and tables; Serve Naga
(also called NetServe) which indicates a comprehensive listing of city government
services detailing requirements to avail it, the steps and procedures as well the response
time and accountable personnel for categorized service; Share Naga which divulges
relevant data on city fiscal affairs including budget and expenditure, public bidding
announcements, invitations and results, city ordinances and resolutions, and directory of
city government officials with their respective contact numbers and emails; and finally
Star Naga which features the city’s accomplishments, awards and citations.

One interesting to mention is the Community Forum, an interactive facility that permits
individuals to communicate with the rest of offline and online city residents including city
employees and officials. This feature enables people to express and convey information,
feedback, complaints, suggestions and recommendations, as this allows people to interact
directly with city officials and employees.
The Naga City Citizen’s Charter on the other hand is its second component which
constitutes the printed version of the NetServe theme of the Naga City government
website. As mentioned, this is a handbook that contains the procedures and requirements
to avail the services provided by the city government, together with other useful contents
such as maps which indicate where the location of offices/ departments are and a
perforated feedback form for people to use as one means to express their opinions and
suggestions about city services.
As a commitment, the ordinance stipulates that the Office of the Mayor should update it,
ensure the relevance of information contained in www.naga.gov.ph and parallel, the Naga
City Citizen’s Charter is consequently updated, reprinted and distributed within one year
after every local election.
Recent policy development at the national level is being hailed as one of the most
promising service improvement reform mandate – the Republic Act 9485 - Act to Improve
Efficiency in the Delivery Government Service to the Public by Reducing Bureaucratic
Red-Tape, Preventing Graft and Corruption, and Providing Penalties Therefore, otherwise
known as the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007. Consistent with principles of integrity,
accountability, proper management of public affairs and public property, and transparency
this law mandates the adoption of a program for simplified procedures that will to reduce
red tape and expedite transactions in government. Foremost is its directive to all
government agencies including departments, bureaus, offices, instrumentalities, or
government owned and controlled corporations, or local government or district units shall
establish their respective service standards to be known as Citizen’s Charter.
This law specifies the form by which the citizen’s charter shall be realized. It shall be in
the form of billboards which shall be posted at the main entrance of offices or at the most
conspicuous place, and in the form of published materials written either in English,
Filipino, or in local dialect, that detail:
1) The procedure to obtain a particular service;

2) The person/s responsible for each step;
3) The maximum time to conclude the process;
4) The documents to be presented by the customer, if necessary;
5) The amount of fees if necessary; and
6) The procedure for filing complaints.
The same law points to the head of offices and agencies as the primary responsible for the
implementation of this Act and shall be held accountable to the public in rendering fast,
efficient, convenient and reliable service. The law further stipulates limitation of
signatories to a maximum of five which represent officers directly supervising the office
or agency concerned; adoption of working schedules to serve the clients within their
premises prior to end of working hours and even during lunch break and after regular
working hours; and the establishment of public assistance/ complaints desk. The law also
lays down the corresponding penalties for violations of detailed administrative or criminal
offenses therein specified.
In the light of customary ways of doing things upon assumption of new administration or
leadership after elections, it is impossible for the next local administration/leadership to
set aside or de-prioritize Citizen’s Charter program implementation given these two strong
legislations. Both policies underscore the accountability of the head of agency, and in this
case, the local chief executive to implement the citizen’s charter.

Box 8: What the Mayor Says About the Charter Being Effectively Implemented:
“it’s possible”
“The most important element in all of these is capacity of the bureaucracy. Actually, the charter only tells
you what we can do. The charter is just a tool. At the end of the day, it’s us. You can develop a very good
charter if you have a very proficient and very motivated bureaucracy. In our case, the charter was born out
not just out of setting standards but born out of saying this is how ready we are – these are the standards
we set ourselves. The Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) of 2007 might be a tool to measure but it doesn’t really
tell you, exactly what they can do. I can prepare a charter for Building Permit, set standard say at 15 days.
But I am capable doing it in 4 days then the 15 days (standard in the National Building Code) is
meaningless. It’s a way of documenting the capacity and making the organization answerable for the
standards set for itself”.
It’s not something that should be imposed. If imposed, probably you come up with standards that are too
difficult to achieve, probably you might come up with standard that is very easy to achieve. It’s not
localized. If initiated by an internal desire to really deliver what you will set as standards would be much
better than what others are setting for themselves…. We have done it without the law (ARTA). It’s possible.
Whether in the Philippines or Indonesia, or elsewhere, you begin with capacity of the bureaucracy. The
charter in effect will just document the capacity of the bureaucracy.”
-- Mayor Jesse M. Robredo
Naga City
4.2.1.3.2 Presence of Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanisms

As far as formal and systematic monitoring or evaluation mechanisms, the city has
instituted none for the citizen’s charter. There has been no external third party formal
evaluation of the charter implementation which interviewees agree to be very ideal and
desirable for them. Certain constraints limit them from commissioning an external
evaluation of the program. But so far, the means by which they monitor the progress and
to a certain extent assess the effectiveness of the citizen’s charter is through the sub-
mechanisms established – the TEXTNaga (which is centrally received by a dedicated
SMS Server) and Text the Mayor (which is a personal phone of the Mayor) strategies.
They also rely heavily to what the NCPC has to say or to the feedbacks they normally
receive from them. Suggestions are also relayed thru these means apart from the office
telephone numbers and email addresses of the city government officials. One message
relayed by the interviewee is shared to the researcher and it commends the Business One
Stop Shop (BOSS) they conducted last time. According to the one who sent the text
message to TXTNaga, such an effort minimizes the informal and additional charges
because all concerned office desks are contained in one area thereby saving precious time
and money from coming back to the city hall.
Another interviewee added that citizen’s charter concerns and developments are lengthily
discussed in Management Committee Meetings. Hence, for management consumption,
allows them to assess internally the effectiveness of the program. However, results of this
internal evaluation are not dovetailed to Performance Appraisal of the Staff. In addition,
the interviewee says the City Development Council (CDC) does consciously monitor
feedback and comments from people as to all local governance complaints and grievances
in the city. The concerns of the CDC are then fed back to the City Government for
appropriate action.
Box 9: What a Department Head Says about Performance Appraisal: “there is peer,
subordinate and client rating”
“In every office, there was a group called Productivity Improvement Circle (PIC) formed during PSEP days
who functions as Service Audit Team within offices. Their audit report became basis of Productivity
Incentive Bonus (PIB). PIB is given to both casual and regular employees. Two satisfactory ratings entitle
these people to receive PIB. Then it had corresponding reward amounts (as high as 3,000 and low as 500)
distributed to staff based on results of PIC rating. Now, we follow Civil Service Commission’s Performance
Evaluation System (CSC-PES) where there is peer, subordinate, and client rating”.
-- Ms. Teresita Zapata

Human Resource Management Officer
The HRM Office adopts the Civil Service Commission (CSC) – Performance Evaluation
System (PES). PES is a system of assessing individual or personnel in government as
basis for awards and other forms of recognition. This regular personnel mechanism is
linked with citizen’s charter in the sense that the starting point is the description of one’s
job which is basically the personnel tasks in the services that his/her office offers to the
public. The personnel’s job is basically outlined in the Performance Pledge which every
employee in the city signs and commits to deliver. The results of the PES become the
basis of the Performance Incentive Bonus.
All offices are required to submit their Annual Accomplishment Reports. Therein
indicated are not just the accomplishment of the departments or offices but also the
operational concerns and bottlenecks. The gist of these reports are then consolidated and
reported by the Mayor during his State of the City Address which is a report of the
administration to legislative department and the people of Naga. These management
approaches to monitor the city government personnel compliance or non-compliance to
citizen’s charter point to the unconscious manifestations of an accountable city
government.
The findings above reveal that there was no one single most important and comprehensive
strategy or approach that is useful in all stages of the citizen’s charter program. Analysis
however reveals that certain factors appear more dominant in distinct phases of the
citizen’s charter. In the conception of the charter, the institutional structure formed was
found pivotal in facilitating the crucial activities of the charter formulation. But nagging
was the question on how extensive was the consultation made by the city government in
setting the service standards of the charter. While there was a conscious and deliberate
effort to consult the organized group such as the NCPC for practical and convenience
purposes, the low awareness of people about the charter reflects this inadequacy. The
consultation here in the words of Wilcox (1994) will pass what he calls as ‘consultation
stance’ where the drafted standards have been initially drafted but were purposely asked to
obtain feedback. There was a mindful effort on the part of the city government to ‘listen’
and adjust the standards. In the implementation phase of the charter, the dominant factor
that surfaced is the accessibility of information about the charter to the greater public
which was found not perfectly matching with the means by which the target clients can be
reached. While indeed it was commendable to have begun utilizing electronic means to
get in touch with the segments of the clients, it was revealed that face to face transaction
with frontliners in the service window was still the most frequent source of information to
clients. The capacity building on the other hand, was found effective to those who have
attended the trainings but there is still the concern about the rest and for all in general who
have not and desires a more programmatic skills enhancement or attitude/behavioral
modification program perceived helpful in the performance of duties and functions. In the
institutionalization phase of the charter, it was found the local and national legislations
were more than enough to guarantee the charter’s sustainability. However, the findings
disclose the absence of a systematic evaluation of the citizen’s charter than already runs
for almost a decade now.
4.2.2 Openness and Accessibility of Information and Standards in

Citizen’s Charter
4.2.2.1 Clarity and Understandability of Requirements

Ninety six percent (96%) of the clients surveyed are clear with and do understand the
requirements of the services and products they are availing. This finding contradicts the
opinions of government interviewees, they believe that from the perspective of the
service provider, it is them who would find the requirements more understandable
because it is them who were involved in drafting it in the first place. And that the public
would not completely understand these that is why the element of customer relations is
very important to be able to explain to those who don’t understand the necessity of the
requirements. Yet this finding re-assures the city government officials, at least for the
two offices covered in this study that clients understand the requirements of the services
they are availing.
4.2.2.2 Display of Procedures and Process Flows

Sixty percent (60%) of the clients surveyed state that the procedures or process flow are
displayed and posted. The idea is for clients to be familiar with how the transaction with
the particular office will proceed even before approaching the window for Step 1 of the
procedure. The researcher’s observation however is contrary with this perception from
the clients surveyed. The BPL office does not visibly display any procedure or process
flow inside or outside the City Treasurer’s Office. On the other hand, while there is a
transaction process flows or procedures in the LCR’s office, these are not readily noticed
by clients. Only the BPL-CTO displays a prominent Performance Pledge. But not even
the touted performance pledge identifies the steps or procedures for it is not numbered as
to steps or labeled as procedures. This is because the performance pledge is not designed
to be a procedures document but a statement of commitment. The “How to Avail the
Service” in the inside pages of Naga City Citizen’s Charter is one that is helpful to and
needed by the transacting public.

4.2.2.3 Display of Fees and Charges
Fifty eight percent (58%) of the clients surveyed express that applicable fees and charges
are not displayed or specified. This goes to show that not many of the clients are clear
with how much they are going pay with the service they are availing. Their only basis
perhaps would be previous transaction payment (if same service was availed of
previously). Apart from asking the frontline staff, clients may also resort to asking other
clients who have transacted in the same window. The idea here is for clients to obtain
information about fees and charges prior to being notified by the frontline staff. That way,
clients are ready to transact with the office without necessarily being compromised with
the frontline window if money is not enough.
In Yogyakarta City, Azizah (2008) found that even if staff knew there are standards for
charges there was a willful choice not to inform the citizens. This is because staff would
lose the opportunity to get additional income from the service (i.e. becoming a witness to
the service as one of the requirements), or would not be able to charge extraordinary
service for a fast service (especially for wealthy clients). The survey done confirmed that
there were staffs not providing official receipts to clients simply because clients did not
ask for it. Knowledge of the standard charges according to Azizah is important to achieve
transparency. The present study in Naga City did not find non-issuance of official receipts
to clients.
In the hard and soft copies of the charter, not all services would require payment yet not
all have specified the charges and fees that need to be paid. In cases where there is a
computation needed to calculate the payment such as charges, the corresponding source of
policy (ordinance or national issuance) is posted to enable public to verify the basis. Not
the whole schedule is posted. Fees more or less are fixed within the three years. If there
are changes in the schedule of the charges, the client would have to refer to frontliners in
the windows. Unlike in the web posting, only after three years could the revised amounts
be posted in the published charter. In the first edition of the charter, there were no fees or
charges declared or posted. Now there are wherever viable and applicable.
The rating beside shows that on a scale

Key Informants Rating of Transparency
of 1 to 5 where 1 is the lowest (Very
Disappointing/Very Un-transparent) Before the charter implementation 2.92
and 5 the highest (Very Good/Very At present 4.06
Transparent) key informants rated transparency in city government before charter
implementation as near Average (2.92) and at present is, Good/Transparent (4.06).
This reveals a leap of rating of perceived transparency among key informants.
The Chairperson of the NCPC is of the opinion that the city has become a more
transparent government because it is assured that people can check and ask how much was
spent, where and how much is left. Asking information about city programs and project
and receiving it is guaranteed. In the same way, she observes that people have become
more vigilant of what the local government is doing. They are equally challenged to see if
what the government said would be true not just in intentions or words but also in deeds
and actions. Further she thinks the city government has become a model for its lower level
barangays to emulate in terms of openness and transparency.
The findings above reveal a conscious effort on the part of the city government to be open
and transparent in the way they do things in their offices by producing the book form
(Naga City Citizen’s Charter) and electronic form (NetServe) of the charter but these
efforts as far as awareness of the citizens is concerned is not sufficient. Clients surveyed in
the study perceive that the requirements are clear and understandable. But the visible
display of procedures and process flows as well as applicable fees and charges would have
to be worked on for findings disclose not many of the clients notice them right away. The
posting of this critical information at the city hall premises is very important because (as
revealed in this study) the clients could nowhere obtain the same but only service
windows. And if they are not armed with this crucial information, clients cannot be
expected to demand standards as per declarations. Transparency in the advocacies of
UNDP-TUGI (2003) would mean free flow of information directly accessible to those
concerned with it. The aim of spreading/propagating the information about what can be
expected of the services in the city government service standards has not been fully
achieved.
4.2.3 Accountability Mechanisms in Citizen’s Charter
4.2.3.1 Display of Identification

Fifty six percent (56%) of clients surveyed says identification names or tags are not
prominently displayed for anyone to read of identify. Actual observation confirms this
finding. Majority of the frontline staff are not wearing their identification cards because
this very same card is also used as salary disbursing ATM card which many keep in their
wallets and bags so as not to scratch, break or dent. Hence, some resorted to producing
replica of the official identification card just to be able to wear one. For those who do not
bother, did not wear any identification at all. This however, is not the case before when
their identification cards are not same as their ATM salary disbursing card. This is a case
of misplaced function. Identification cards or name tags are supposedly meant for clients
to “identify” who they are transacting with. When clients know who exactly they are
transacting with, they are more able to exact accountability.
4.2.3.2 Presence of Functional Complaints/Feedback Mechanism

As has been mentioned in the discussion on Accessibility (in Formulation of Citizens
Charter) one functional mechanism by which an exchange of communication between the
city government and the citizens is through the open cellular phone of the Mayor and the
TXTNaga facilities. The open line of the Mayor is a personal phone of the local chief
executive which receives complaints and feedback from the residents. What the Mayor
does when he receives complaints is to coordinate this with the respective department and
office head for appropriate action. The same thing is true for TXT Naga which is centrally
received by a devoted server managed by Electronic Data Processing Unit (EDPU) which
in turn routes the message to concerned office. The sender receives an auto reply from the
server to acknowledge receipt of sent message. Such text is also received by the Mayor
and is followed up for action. All offices of the city hall are provided with telephone
numbers which the city residents can call for information and feedback. In addition, the

public may also write a letter and send to email addresses which are contained in the
directory posted in the citizen’s charter publication.
The complaints received thru text vary from mundane to the serious ones. There was one
who complained that a city government employee was “singing very loud in a karaoke
bar”. Another is a complaint that a “convenience store operates without a permit, it’s
unfair”. Still another is “high asking price in LCR”. All these samples received thru
Mayor’s cellular phone. As an action, the former was verified, inspected and was given
order to secure a mayor’s permit while the latter was investigated by the LCR Head
himself and found the complainant has something against the staff for there was really
none in the fees required was extravagantly high. Or maybe according to the interviewee,
is the case for fixers. The LCR since then has been more vigilant of these cases. The texts
received by the city are also positive ones like congratulatory remarks for the successful
conduct of BOSS, faster transactions now and the like (with a reminder to be more so).
One concern though with these mechanisms is the tracking and monitoring of complaints,
feedbacks and suggestions. All interviewees during personal interview and focus group
discussion admit that this is an area for improvement. While the TXTNaga can generate
how many complaints are received for example in a week and how many have been acted
upon, the responses made using the Mayor’s personal phone they claim cannot be tracked
or monitored. The Mayor takes it as a personal responsibility to act and respond even
during sleeping time.
One admission to the weakness of citizen’s charter is the inability or lack of mechanism to
monitor the Customer Feedback Forms they attached to the Citizen’s Charter publications
for the past two editions. While it has become fashionable for city residents to make use of
the more accessible cellular phones which majority of the residents has access to, one
interviewee admits he is yet to see an accomplished feedback form from customer.
Government interviewees realize it is the Information Desk that should have it and receive
it.
Apart from these measures, the city also capitalizes on the internet facility by establishing
the Community Forum in the Naga City official website which likewise allows city and
non-city residents to participate in communication and exchanges with the city
government. The Community Forum is managed by an administrator in EDPU.
The potential for harnessing information technology is not yet exhausted. According to
one interviewee the cellular phones of city residents can be further utilized to propagate
citizen’s charter. Citing the Survey of Ateneo de Naga which says that every household in
the city has two cellular phones, the interviewee believes this can be used to overcome the
internet divide (which limits some who don’t have internet access). He thinks of uploading
the citizen’s charter salient information to one qualified cellular company which the city
residents can access directly through their phone. In the midst of technological revolution,
this according to him is the “way to go”. This he describes as “cellphone penetration”.
On another development is the intention to bring texts received in TXTNaga to the

knowledge of NCPC. The idea is for the NCPC as a vanguard of good local governance to

also read and monitor actions of the city hall. This way too, the city extends in a more
innovative way the transparency and accountability of the administration to the concerns
lodged by the residents.
If there are unsatisfactory services or products, clients are supposed to feed this back to
the office they transacted with and demand for correction, replacement, or redress. This is
a picture of an empowered client. But before they can do that, clients need to know how to
do it. A procedure for complaints is therefore looked into by the research and findings
show that seventy four percent (74%) of the clients surveyed did not see any posted or
specified complaints procedure in the office they transected with. Observation confirms
this finding, although it is a popular word of mouth in the city hall, that they can always
“text the Mayor” for complaints and suggestions there is none within the city hall
premises that would inform transacting public about how they can complain much less
how they can text the city mayor. I could personally attest of the Mayor’s open line but
could not vouch of any notice board within the city hall premises indicating that he can be
texted anytime using a particular number. And the conventional feedback form pages
(which are contained in the Naga City Citizen’s Charter last pages which are supposed to
be perforated and sent at “Office of the Mayor, 2nd F, City Hall, J. Miranda Street 4400
Naga City) has not yielded a very impressive register. Also nil is any Suggestion Box
where people can readily drop feedbox forms without going up to the Office of the Mayor.
We found an Information Desk that is not always manned located at the side entrance of
the city hall but the person occupying the desk is not very well adept of information the
public may need such as requirements for a specific service. There is much that desk can
offer the public other than pointing where the location of the office is. It can receive the
feedback forms, hand out and explain citizen’s charter flyers and info sheet, serve as the
first arbiter between the public and the government, and serve as frontline staff of all
frontline staff. An interviewee explains city residents can also submit complaints to the
Legal Office and the Human Resource Management Office.
It also appears that procedure for complaining is a vague thing for city hall staff
themselves. They seem to be unsure as to whether there is an official procedure when
dissatisfied customers complain about service or product. Fifty three percent said there is
no official procedure while forty percent (40%) says there is. The procedure they
mentioned is that a written complaint will have to be submitted and signed by the
complainant which would be responded and acted upon by supervisors or office heads.
The types of complaints the offices received range from lack of frontliners/personnel, low
performance of computer system, increased tax every year, slow processing, delayed
services, long queues, and slow changing of money paid.
The means explored above indicates that the city government is extending means and
ways by which they could reach city inhabitants to express themselves and provide
feedback to the government charter. This is contrary to findings of PAC (2007) Study that
reveals users are not encouraged to provide feedback on charters.
Below is a table illustrating the various reactions by which frontline staff/officers handle
complaints. More than one third of these reactions are reflective of their attitude as

accountable staff and officials. These observations of the clients however have not been
probed if it occurred within the last year.
Table 15: Client’s Observations How Frontline Staff/Officers React if They Encounter
Oral Complaints and Feedback
Business Permit and Licensing Division Local Civil Registry
Acts to respond to problems /Entertains/ Cooperates / accommodates
16 14
Listens to
Talks with and finds solution / Apologizes and Entertains / listens to queries
14 23
corrects / Troubleshoots
Brings the concern to the Head of Office Feels guilt/ Denies fault/ Cant be
located on their assigned post/ Not 5
5
clear in giving instruction
No experience/ No idea Shouts to clients and unpleasant
13 1
toward clients
I don’t mind, it’s not related to me No opportunity to observe / No
2 7
experience/No comment
In the same vein, seventy seven percent (77%) of clients covered by this survey observed
that there is no procedure posted or specified as to how clients can express appreciation or
commendation for satisfactory services or products. Observation within the offices
covered by this study would reveal that there are no procedures posted for such a purpose.
Again, interviewees mentioned appreciation or feedback can always be forwarded to the
Mayor’s cellular phone number. But even this, there is none you will find in the city
premises that would say “text to Mayor all your comments and feedback” (only in the
city’s official website and in the published Naga City Citizen’s Charter). Residents and
clients who have internet connection can also express appreciation or thanks either at city
official email addresses or post it at Community Forum. One citizen comment was relayed
to the researcher by an interviewee thru paraphrased wordings that say “for the first time,
a local government has innovated on something we can see and a facility where we can
express. The city government is serious in showing transparency by providing us figures
(i.e. posting of city budget and allocations and the bidding process and results)”. City
residents can also extend their appreciation through the Office of the City Council where a
Councilor can author a citation or recognition for exemplary personnel or department.
4.2.3.3 Presence of Functional Redress Mechanism

Once the complaint has been filed or submitted in whatever means available for the city
residents either TEXT Naga, Text to Mayor, Community Forum, or emails, snail/postal
mails and phone calls, what can be expected as an action to correct and remedy the
situation as may be required? The HRM Officer relayed that a complaint is validated first
and if found true, the guilty employee is meted out with appropriate sanction. An apology
to customers is then issued.
In the LCR, a complaint is validated if indeed the mistake was theirs and then issues a
corrected one. In the case of a Petition for Correction that was transacted in their office
and whose product is also copy furnished/submitted to a central agency, the remedy is not
shouldered or charged to the client. It was an inadvertent mistake. The staff receives a
reprimand from supervisor to make her realize the implication of a mistake on a perpetual
document. It seems that for the office of the civil registry there is no room for mistake.
In the BPL Division, if a mistake is committed, especially during BOSS in January they
apologize right away and make necessary corrections in the document. They don’t issue
any formal letter whatsoever nor compensates any client. Verbal apology is the first
recourse of action.
There is no case yet of a compensation to pacify/appease a complaining client. This

according to one interviewee is something that may probably take some time. He thinks
that penetration the charter into the consciousness of the public has not fully taken place
yet. People have not fully embraced it and are not completely empowered yet. He believes
that to a certain extent this is cultural. “We’re not a very complaining people. We don’t
dare hold government bureaucrats accountable. This has to be cultivated”. He assesses
that the city still is half way to a culture change as far as community service vigilance and
orientation is concerned. Yet some cases relayed to the researcher already exemplify such
an attitude. A couple went to the city hall to complain about their plants in the garden
being run-off by the city garbage collection truck. The chief of the department readily
apologized to the complainant but they did not ask for any compensation. They said they
just want to express and inform that such a case can still happen and that action should be
done by the concerned department. A present case is being heard about the complaint on
alleged inaction of the city hospital towards an incoming patient. The case was filed by
parents who are legitimate residents of the city. In India, PAC (2007) discloses that most
officials claim to resolve grievances in a timely fashion while end-users beg to differ.
Nearly 76% of officials interviewed claimed to acknowledge user complaints within the
time period specified in the departments’ citizen’s charter. Yet just 39% of end users who
filed a formal complaint report that officials promptly acknowledge and resolve
grievances per standards.
The rating beside shows that on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is the lowest (Very
Disappointing/Very Un-accountable) and
Key Informants Rating of Accountability
5 the highest (Very Good/Very Before citizen’s charter implementation 3.14
Accountable) key informants rated At present 4.62
accountability in city government before
charter implementation as slightly over Average (3.14) and at present, more than
Good/Accountable (4.62). This rating shows a big improvement of perception of the
city’s accountability among informants to services being rendered by the city hall.
The accountability mechanisms established in support of the I-Governance Program where

the citizen’s charter is an integral part are innovative and pioneering but not all are fully
functional. There are a number of avenues by which citizens can express complaints and
feedback to the city government. The IT based facilities that include open phone line/Text
to the Mayor; TEXT Naga; the Community Forum in the city’s official website; and the
conventional feedback form or letter to the city government. What seems to work very
conveniently at this time is the Text to Mayor mode which is received directly by the local

chief executive. The complaint is then relayed for action by the concerned office or
department and is followed up by the Mayor himself. The concern however with this
mode is the tracking and monitoring of the complaints, feedbacks and suggestions. The
least functional of these modes is the feedback form attached at the end pages of the Naga
City Citizen’s Charter which has not yielded a striking register. There was no display of
procedures how to complain within the city hall premises but are found in the published
form of the charter. The received complaints or feedback from all these sources are acted
upon independently by concerned offices. Complaints are validated, remised employees
are meted with appropriate sanction, correction is done and an apology is relayed to
aggrieved customers either by frontliners themselves or the head of office. This illustrates
the kind of accountability advocated by UNDP (1997) when it defined accountability as a
requirement for officials to be answerable to stakeholders on disposal of their duties and to
act on criticisms in case of failure and incompetence. However, there is none as of yet a
compensation provided to appease a complaining client. The findings also reveal that
majority of the frontliners and office heads are not prominently displaying their
identification names for anyone to visibly read. Identification cards or name tags/plates are
supposedly meant for clients to ‘identify’ who they are transacting with so they would
know who to exact accountability.
4.2.4 Perception of the Quality of Services in City Government

This section of the findings analyzes a number of quality dimensions that serve to assess
whether the services or products are satisfying the expectations of the clients as customers
of the city hall. These quality dimensions include: Service Information Accessibility,
Accuracy, Area Comfortability, Pleasantness, Equality, and Timeliness.
4.2.4.1 Customer’s Expectations
Table below shows that the client’s most voted choice of standard covered by this study.
On top is “fair treatment to clients” which acquired 15.86%, and closely followed by
“friendliness/greetings/courtesy to clients” which got 15.51%. Least of the expectations
are “timeliness” (7.49%) and a composite of behavioural, attitudinal expectations lumped
in “others” (5.17%) and enumerated in detail below.
Table 16: Client’s Personal Expectations on Products and Services
Responses Frequency Percentage

Fair treatment to all clients 89 15.86
Friendliness/ greetings/ courtesy to clients 87 15.51
Availability on declared time 72 12.83
Accuracy/No mistake/ no repeat work 72 12.83
Extra help/assistance 70 12.48
Extended service hours 53 9.45
Comfortable waiting area 47 8.38
Timeliness 42 7.49
Others 29 5.17
Note: Multiple Responses; n: 561
Table 17: Client’s Personal Expectations on Products and Services - “Others”
Responses Frequency Percentage

Speed / fast transaction 10 1.78
Posts relevant information / disseminates info 5 0.89
Accommodating/service with a heart
(industry/loyalty/commitment) 2 0.36
Follows the set process/standard 2 0.36
Responsiveness 2 0.36
Energetic/ lively 1 0.18
No returning of transactions if possible 1 0.18
First come first served basis 1 0.18
Renders services (skeletal force) during break time 1 0.18
No entertaining of unofficial business/visitors 1 0.18
Designation of OIC if on leave or late 1 0.18
Wearing of ID 1 0.18
Clarity of instruction 1 0.18
Table above shows the variety of expectations of transacting clients to frontline services.
Foremost among open ended responses is speed or fast transaction. This means that if the
city government wants to satisfy the expectations of the public they should put among the
major considerations are speed of transaction; equal treatment; and friendliness and
courtesy. Selected indicators have been closely looked into and the results of their
perception are discussed in the following paragraphs.
Table 18: Client’s Perception of the Quality of Services Being Rendered by the City
Government
Service Quality Dimensions Percentage
Information Accessible 92%
Accurate 97%
Pleasant 94%
Comfortable waiting area 95%
Fair treatment 89%
Timely 88%
4.2.4.2 Service Information Accessibility

First quality dimension looked at in this research is information accessibility. Ninety two
percent (92%) of the clients surveyed in this study perceives information is accessible.
Interviewees enumerated the means by which the city informs the public about the
services the city offers: the frontline staff and officers; the Naga City Official website; the
Naga City Citizen’s Charter publication, the Performance Pledges posted outside the city

government offices; the flag ceremonies and public fora. These means are being made
available to the public for residents and clients to access whatever their conditions and
circumstances in life. Interviewees however admit that they have not fully covered all the
households which are supposed to receive the citizen’s charter guidebook.
4.2.4.3 Service Accuracy
The second quality dimension is service accuracy. Ninety seven percent (97%) of the
clients surveyed said the product they have received is accurate. Interviewees however
admit there are still some loopholes but they are always open for correction and feedback
not only from external but even among internal clients (city hall employees).
4.2.4.4 Service Pleasantness
The third quality dimension explored by this study is service pleasantness. Ninety four
percent (94%) of the clients surveyed perceived the courtesy, helpfulness and
accommodation rendered by service providers. According to the interviewees this is what
they strive to be always - service with a smile. But admittedly they explain there are still
circumstances that clients will encounter where this particular expectation will not be met.
There are still those who might still have work attitude problems but they hope their brood
will not become dominant. The staff might have personal circumstances that affect their
work behaviour. PAC’s study in 2007 found that officials on the other hand are generally
courteous and helpful. Nearly 86% of respondents felt that officials they encountered were
courteous or very courteous. Similarly, 83% perceived officials to be helpful or very
helpful.
Box 10: What an Office Head says About Courtesy, Friendliness and Accommodating
Attitude of Public Servants: “service with a smile”
“It has always been service with a smile. As far as I know they try to be very much. But sometimes they
may have problem and falter. For whatever reason it’s not possible, we tell our staff
“You can say no without antagonizing the customer.”
– Ms. Teresita Zapata Human
Resource Management Officer
4.2.4.5 Service Area Comfortability

The fourth quality dimension is service area comfortability. Ninety five percent (95%) of
the clients surveyed found the service area comfortable enough for them to wait.
Interviewees on the other hand feel this is an area for improvement of the city, especially
if it is to benchmark with other cities in the country. One interviewee said even if they are
courteous and accommodating there would still be an aura of separation or barrier because
of the steel bars in the service windows of the main building. The meantime the ‘un-
extravagant’ city administration which prioritizes other programs and projects will have to
compensate with other approaches. Transacting public would have to make do with they
have right now.
4.2.4.6 Service Equality
The fifth quality dimension explored in this study is service equality. Eighty nine percent
(89%) of the clients surveyed indicated that there was fair treatment among them
transacting in the office. Interviewees claim the office’s treatment to transacting public is
the same regardless of economic status or religion, or sex, big or small taxpayer. There is
no discrimination they say. One interviewee explains the Mayor implements an open door
policy where anyone who wants to meet with him can do even without appointment.
4.2.4.7 Service Timeliness
The sixth quality dimension studied is service timeliness. Eighty eight percent (88%) of
the respondents surveyed indicated the service is timely. Interviewees explain that as
much as possible they follow the declared time by which the service should have been
finished. They also claim that sometimes they are also ahead of time declarations meaning
services are rendered in less than the committed time. One interviewee said “not all are
strictly followed but neither is it grossly violated”. For LCR and BPL, meeting the target
time is the norm but the respective heads qualify that it also depends on the completeness
of the client’s documents. It should be pointed out that this dimension is different from the
speed of services. In Azizah’s (2008) study in Yogyakarta City it was revealed that staff
knew of the standard time by which a service should have been delivered however, due to
lack of computer facilities service providers often violated this standard. Clients have
accepted this situation because they are being informed of the possibility of delay. In some
cases however, the study revealed that sanctions have been applied thus, staffs would be
the one to deliver the product to the citizen’s house. Critical to this is the client’s
knowledge of time standard which Azizah confirmed not many people know of.
The rating beside shows that on a scale Key Informants Rating of Quality
of 1 to 5 where 1 is the lowest (Very
Before the citizen’s charter implementation 3.00
Disappointing/Very Low Quality) and 5
the highest (Very Good/Very High At present 4.18
Quality) key informants rated quality in
city government before charter implementation as flat Average (3.00) while at present it’s
more than Good/High Quality (4.18). This rating is attributable to the continuous
improvement effort of the city government to make the services better for the residents.
Both the clients and employees positively perceive the quality of services being rendered
by the city government. The numerical ratings of clients and adjectival descriptions of
government officials interviewed more or less confirm each other’s perception. Services
information are generally accessible because of its availability in the internet however the
issue is no longer the content but the distribution of the Naga City Citizen’s Charter to all
households in the city. Services are predominantly accurate and the openness of the city to
be corrected is a welcome attitude. A great majority of the clients perceived the courtesy,
friendliness and accommodation extended by frontliners. Clients perceive waiting areas
are comfortable although department heads think this is an opportunity for improvement
whenever viably possible. Clients perceive a fair treatment that does not distinguish nor
discriminate. Least but still positively perceived is the timeliness of services rendered.

4.2.4.7 Ratings on Effectiveness and Service Delivery Improvement
This section provides the final rating on the effectiveness of the charter as solicited from
interviewees and survey respondents. It also relays valuable suggestions as to how the city
government can further improve its public service delivery function.
Table 19: Client’s Perception on Product/Service Availed in Local Civil Registry and
Business Permit and Licensing Division Offices
Business Permit and
Local Civil Registry
Licensing Division Responses
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage
0 0 Extremely Disappointing 0 0
0 0 Disappointing 0 0
21 42.00 Okay 18 36.00
23 46.00 Good 20 40.00
6 12.00 Very Good 12 24.00
Table above indicates the positive satisfaction rating of clients surveyed in this study.
Clients of both BPL and LCR perceive the services rendered to them is at least good (58%
and 64% respectively). Respondents didn’t think the services rendered were disappointing
nor extremely disappointing. This illustrates that the citizen’s charter as far as this two
offices are concerned is going in the direction where the charter has envisioned itself to
proceed, that is ultimately satisfying the service expectations of the clients.
The table below reveals the uneven but improving client’s perception of the effectiveness
of public service delivery with and without the charter in place. At present no one among
the respondents assessed the service delivery extremely disappointing whereas before
there was. The at least good rating progressed from 37% to 64% which depicts that the
charter per public perception is an evolving and effective service delivery improvement
program. Similarly, the disappointing rating decreased from 15% to just merely 2%.
While only a sample of the population of transacting public in Naga City government was
covered in this study, the findings reveal the improved rating even for at least two
frontline but highly sought for offices in the city hall.
Table 20: Client’s Perception of Public Service Effectiveness Before and After Charter
Formulation/Institutionalization
Before the Charter
During the Charter implementation
implementation Responses
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage
Extremely
4 4.00 Disappointing 0 0.00
11 11.00 Disappointing 2 2.00
48 48.00 Okay 33 33.00
27 27.00 Good 48 48.00
7 7.00 Very Good 16 16.00
3 3.00 No answer 1 1.00
The rating beside shows that on a Key Informants Rating of Effectiveness of City
scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is the lowest Government
(Very Disappointing/Very
Before citizen’s charter implementation 3.14
Ineffective) and 5 the highest (Very
Good/Very Effective) key At present 4.25
informants rated effectiveness in
city government before charter implementation as slightly over Average (3.14) and at
present, more than Good/Effective (4.25).
There are convincing reasons why the interviewees believe the citizen’s charter has been
an effective program to enhance transparency, accountability and quality in city service
delivery:
1. The numerous awards received tell how effective the program is. In fact the Citizen’s
Charter of Naga is being replicated and serves as model to many. Originally 110
services now 140 services are posted. Indication is they can deliver more. There are in
fact backroom offices in the city hall which effectively produce services in support of
frontline ones.
2. Now, people know where to go and how to transact. They are now guided. They are no
longer going to grope in ignorance, circling around and will no longer be coming back
and forth.
3. There is now awareness how to avail and quality standards how these would be
delivered are declared.
4. The influx of business establishment and enterprises as a result of government
improvement program indicate program effectiveness. The business friendly city
award has created impression there is no red tape and that the services are predictable
in the city. This is important to businessmen. Interviewee expressed: “More
businessmen we get because we have a more business-friendly environment”.
5. The citizen’s charter is now being used by ordinary people. It’s now in the
consciousness of Naguenos that basic services are provided by city government. The
city government is effective in their service delivery because more employees now
recognize their responsibility, they decide by themselves on matters within their
function, no matter how limited.
Box 11: What Office Head Says About What Else Can be Done to Further Improve Service
Delivery in Naga City: “awareness program”
It should be more participatory - solicit participation from greater constituents. It should be two way
communications to public even if we have done consultations before. Here we need orientation for them to
know how to avail the services. Even if the citizen’s charter book is already there... but if not read. There
has to be an awareness program”.
– Mr. Alexander Cayetano
Local Civil Registrar

The following are insights of interviewees what can still be done to improve the service
delivery in entire Naga City:
Penetration of the ultimate clients of the city. By design it’s suppose to reach all
households. But resources are also constrained to make copies available to all.
Actualize the continuous improvement. There has to be formal evaluation. It
should recommend how it can be improved.
Intensify information dissemination as far citizen’s charter is concerned.
Awareness Campaign on Naga City Citizen’s Charter. Empower the people more,
give them bigger /wider reservoir of info they should learn about local governance.
Otherwise, if people don’t absorb their rights and don’t demand, it’s going to be
wasted. Inputs from people are valuable. Suggestions can be discussed.
Handy booklet (part by part) for easier reading. Put in newsprint, and divided into
categories (to address resource constraints). At least the top 50 services for the
business sector.
Translation into a local dialect – in Bicol for grassroots to know.
Needs a functional redress mechanism.
Feedback mechanism can be improved. Monitoring of feedback.
Address the comfort dimension.
It should be participatory, solicit participation of constituents. It should be two
way communication to public. Even if we have consultations before. Here we need
orientation for them to know how to avail the services. Even if CC book is already
there but not read. There has to be awareness program.
To be accountable as a whole can still be improved. This needs to be cultivated
and deepened. That my accountability does not end within the confines of my own
office. I should be accountable for the whole service delivery of my city
government. Everyone should be guided to do their job well.
Appended in Annex F is Client’s Suggestions to Improve Public Service Delivery and in
Annex G is Staff’s Suggestions How the Office Can Better Deliver Services.
Box 12: What an Office Head Says About Maintaining the Naga City Citizen’s Charter:
“difficult not to continue”
“Whatever we have gained and started will all go to waste. It defeats the notion that this is a living
document. It would not be consistent with ordinance that meticulously requires updating in three years.
The next administration (leadership) is entitled but would run counter to the law (ARTA) which is national in
scope and power. There is always that opportunity of a more friendly administration to come in. But the
people who benefited… it would be difficult to run counter the momentum. Supposing there are no laws.
There is still the pride of the people. There is clear instance that Naga trailblazed these things, so it would
be difficult not to continue.”
– Mr. Wilfredo Prilles
City Planning and Development Coordinator

4.3 Summary of Findings and Analysis
The above findings show the extent and scope of the possible factors that are associated,
intervening, related in the formulation and implementation and to a great extent the
successful institutionalization of a citizen’s charter. Figure 8 below captures the building
blocks of an Effective Citizens’ Charter as evidenced by the case of citizen’s charter
implementation in Naga City. In the formulation of the citizen’s charter the research has
explored the input variables such as institutional structure, legislation/policy, top
leadership support and motivation, resource allocation, and participation. In the
implementation of the charter it has identified awareness and attitude of frontline staff; the
capacity building; systems employed particularly rewards and punishment imposed; the
accessibility and awareness of the public; top and supervisorial leadership style; and
resource availability. In the institutionalization it has looked into policy presence as
important consideration and the presence of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. It has
investigated the elements that point to the attainment of outcome variables such as
transparency, accountability and quality of services delivered by the Naga City
Government. Given these inputs and corresponding outcomes, the citizen’s charter is
believed to be making an impact manifested in the following state or circumstances:
informed and satisfied clients, professionalized local bureaucracy, reduced transaction
cost, greater stakeholder’s involvement, reduced vulnerability to corruption, and improved
trust and confidence in local government. A wealth of important considerations is drawn
and further discussed in the succeeding and final section.

Figure 8: Building Blocks of an Effective Citizen’s Charter
EFFECTIVE CITIZEN’S CHARTER
INPUTS OUTCOME IMPACT

Formulation Transparency
Institutional Structure Clear
Informed and
Legislation/Policy requirements
Satisfied Clients
Top Leadership Posted procedures
Support and Motivation Displayed Fees
Professionalized
Resource Allocation and Charges
Local Bureaucracy
Participation
Reduced
Accountability Transaction Cost
Implementation Functional Feedback
Awareness Functional Redress Greater
Attitude Displayed Stakeholder’s
Identification Involvement
Capacity Building
Systems Employed
Reduced
Accessibility Vulnerability to
Leadership Style Corruption
Quality
Resource Availability Accessibility
Improved Trust
Accuracy
and Confidence in
Pleasantness Local Government
Institutionalization
Comfortability
Chapter 5
Legislation/Policy
Equality
Management
Approaches Timeliness

Conclusions and Recommendations
5.1 Summaries and Conclusions

For a city government such as Naga, the promises of good urban governance in the
program called I-Governance where citizen’s charter is an integral component is not
waited upon but perseveringly harvested. The city’s effort to make their processes
transparent, their officials and staff accountable and their services and products of quality
standards has bore fruits that it is being enjoyed by its citizens and hailed by others
outside looking at Naga as a model local government. But a program such as citizen’s
charter as a contract of accountability (van Dijk 2006) is not stopping there. The city
government bureaucracy together with the leader at the helm is bringing the charter to
next term of implementation where all revisions and additions would be put to litmus test
of client-centeredness. The city has chosen to maintain charter implementation using a
customer orientation approach where attention is paid to customers (van Dijk 2006). The
citizen’s charter is thus, a customer charter. This in the midst of a national policy
imposing uniform parameters mandated to be followed by all government agencies and
departments, local governments included. Whereas before, the city is being watched
vigilantly only by its people’s vanguard such as the NCPC, now external agencies are
also on the lookout.
The guidance citizen’s charter provides to both providers and transacting public brings
about a new service orientation and client consciousness. As a public sector reform
program in this small city, it has unwittingly exemplified many of the principles of New
Public Management (NPM) outlined by Andrisani, Hakim and Savas (2002): Reverting to
core functions that is identifying them and assuming its responsibility; Decentralizing
and devolving authority by pinpointing who are the responsible persons under the
supervision of accountable head; Restoring civil society by means of involving them in
the program critiquing; monitoring and advocacy; Adopting market /business principles
through introduction of productivity improvement (performance management and
enhancement) approaches such as 5S, 3Rs, service audit, productivity improvement
circles and the like; Satisfying citizens by making adjustments to accommodate it, and
Holding government accountable by subjecting the program to open feedback and
suggestions and presenting itself as accountable service providers; Empowering
employees citizens and communities by involving staff in the drafting of standards,
capacitating and rewarding them for good performance and providing them access to
information so that standards are learned and demanded; and Introducing e-government
and modern technology such as TXTNaga, Text the Mayor, Community Forum, and
NetServe.
This study may have been the first exhaustive rapid appraisal done on the extent of the
citizen’s charter influence on Naga City’s service delivery function focusing on its effect
on transparency, accountability and quality. Its overarching objective is exactly this,
explore its influence. Evidences from the desk and field assessment confirm its perceived
effects or influence on the outcome variables mentioned above.
Desk findings reveal both strengths and weaknesses of the Naga Charter based on three
clusters of parameters: it’s almost perfect (9/10) for Minimum Contents Criteria set by
ARTA 2007, with only the of disclaimer type of notice to the public for circumstances
beyond the city government control is lacking in the book form of the charter; perfect
score (7/7) for Grievance Redress Mechanism Criteria developed by Public Affairs
Centre; and average score (6/11) Citizen Friendly Criteria developed by PAC, India.
Salient points of which will be altogether covered by the summaries narrated in the
succeeding paragraphs.
This section of the report answers the main questions posted in Chapter One. The
research overall question is “To what extent did the citizen’s charter improve or enhance
transparency, accountability and quality of service delivery in Naga City?” Answers are
revealed one by one.
Strategies and Approaches Employed in the Formulation, Implementation and
Institutionalization of Citizen’s Charter
The formulation of the citizen’s charter is marked with factors essential for its jumpstart.
As found in this research institutional structure; legislation/policy; top leadership
support/motivation; and resource allocation are essential elements to propel a vision of
improving public service delivery. The execution of the charter on the other hand is more
challenging and complex if without the presence of an aware frontline staff, positive
attitude of frontliners, skills and competence built thru adequate capacity building,
functional punishment and rewards, available resources, output oriented leadership,
access to greater variety of information mechanisms and the participation of stakeholders
as validators and critiques.
It was found that the drafting of the charter came from the offices themselves hence
ensuring that frontline personnel themselves are aware of the standards being set by their
office and not just their heads and supervisors. It was also revealed that these drafted
standards have been consulted with major organized sector groups which have
generously provided inputs for the improvements of the processes then practiced.
However, the consultation and involvement was limited to organized groups and have not
been apparently extended to majority of their constituents. While practicality and
convenience was the choice, this resulted, as the survey shows a limited knowledge of the
existence of the “Naga City Citizen’s Charter” and the standards of service delivery set
therein. The limited knowledge of the existence of citizen’s charter by its constituents
also limits the possibility of the public enjoying the benefits it entails.
Challenges to formulating and implementing the citizen’s charter can come in different
forms. Naga City encountered the following: haggling/bargaining on the reduction of
time with different offices; change of accountable persons which necessitated updating of
names declared in the charter not to mention whether or not to put: permanent person’s
names or casual staff’s name; meeting deadlines of release; and the number of copies to
be produced per target distribution; and the form issue: whether in booklet or book-form;
handy or bulky?
The facilitating factors on the other hand as enjoyed by the city includes the following:
the championing of the leader who provided directions; the external technical and
financial assistance extended in QSEP and PSEP projects; the materials and forms used
during the formulation which served as templates for drafting; the team work of
competent staff who laboured in the consolidation, coordination and technical editing; the
I-Governance Ordinance which is the policy that institutionalized the charter; and sixth is
the people’s sense of demand which was the reason for charter and the present drive to
sustain the initiative.
The adequacy and appropriateness of strategies and approaches used in formulation and
implementation of the citizen’s charter paved way for the city to inch closer to its vision
of attaining good governance and people-centered development.
Openness and Accessibility of Information and Standards Set in the Citizen’s

Charter
One critical measure of transparency in an organization is the accessibility of

information. The findings reveal a variety of sources by which public can access
information on the availability of city government services. Almost a third of the
respondents surveyed accessed information thru service windows and frontline staff
while only a few accessed information from the Naga City website and the Naga City
Citizen’s Charter publication. This seems to indicate two things: that the means by which
both could be accessed is difficult to obtain; and that non-face to face mode of
information availability is not fully exploited. If such were the case, then it requires that a
more vigorous and purposive awareness program on citizen’s charter be considered if the
city government intends to spread awareness on the availability of means by which
citizen’s can access information on city governments services. The meantime,
strengthening the main source of information - service window frontliners is an
investment on the city that is worth the expenditure.
While it is true and commendable that the city has very well documented about 140
growth oriented or equity enhancing services from 28 offices contained in the Naga City
Citizen’s Charter publication there is a concern on the display of appropriate procedures
and process flow within or outside the city hall offices. What was thought of as a
procedures document embodied in the very well placed Performance Pledges is not
completely true. A closer look at this innovative performance pledges would reveal a
summary of procedures and not the detailed steps of the services the clients would go
through. This is understandable because performance pledges are not designed to be
procedures document because its intention is to declare who the accountable persons
committing in the delivery of services at a particular completion time. What is deemed
more appropriate and useful to display is the “How to Avail the Service” in the inside
pages of Naga City Citizen’s Charter. This appears to be more responding to the question
of clients such as what are the next steps and how long would those take me. Treating the
performance pledge as a commitment means it is more of an accountability measure than
a transparency tool.
Corollary, the display of applicable fees and charges is a concern. While all these and its
explanations are contained in the published guidebook i.e. Naga City Citizen’s Charter
and in the digital copy posted in the official local government website at NetServe, there
is none visibly posted anywhere on the two offices covered by this research. The idea
here is for clients to obtain information about fees and charges prior to being notified by
the frontline staff. That way, clients are ready to transact with the office without
necessarily being compromised with the frontline window if money is not enough. Not to

mention is the latent intent of posting and display is to eliminate or do away with
‘unofficial and additional charges’.
It should be underscored however, that posting of applicable charges and fees was not
included in the first edition of the city services charter. And as a proof of enhanced
transparency such have been decided to be included starting August of 2004 when the
second edition was released. Despite these posting concerns, a great majority of the client
respondents finds the requirements understandable. This is assuring enough that the
transacting public will be able to deal well with the frontliners in the windows of offices
they are transacting with.
There is no doubt the city has successfully projected an openness to its transacting public
and stakeholders yet accessibility of information to the set standards of service delivery
particularly in the Naga City Citizen’s Charter or its digital version in the web (NetServe)
offers a tremendous potential to fully realize a more aware public and a more transparent
local government. The impetus for the realization of empowered citizens - a community
of aware and vigilant public comes from the available means and ways by which they can
realize the same. The charter and its promises can be fully actualized if the mechanisms
to propel it are available. Awareness and dissemination of the presence of I-governance
program in general and the Naga City Citizen’s Charter in particular to the greater public
as the ultimate targets of the charter leaves much to be desired.
Accountability Mechanisms in Citizen’s Charter

The city government staff and officials are not always identifiable for not every time they
wear their identification tags or IDs. The display of visible and readable names allows the
clients to see and know who they are transacting with; and lets them “identify” the
responsible personnel to deal with whether in front of the windows or in their respective
tables. Confidence is built when clients know who exactly they are transacting with as
they are more able to exact accountability.
The presence of complaints and feedback mechanisms they have so far installed seem to
be working on a limited yet promising basis. The Text to Mayor offers the most
convenient and fastest strategy to send the concern to the government. This is very
laudable as this goes straight and direct to the attention of the city mayor. However, the
tracking of received messages through this mode is a concern unlike TEXTNaga where it
is received by a central server and recorded and the actions to the forwarded complaints
are documented. The conventional feedback form mode is the least found functional
method among all designed for very small if not nil were the number of people who have
tried using this mode. There is also absence of suggestion box anywhere in the city hall
premises where such a feedback form can be dropped at. The internet based Community
Forum on the other hand is working well among those who have access to it. The absence
of a fully functional electronic transaction in the city hall means that clients are
transacting on a face to face basis. This reality should be capitalized by the city
government in soliciting a direct feedback from transacting public.

While the city government provides for these feedback mechanisms, the charter as of yet
does not incorporate a provision for compensation clause in its redress system which
stipulates a payment to clients for delays in service. Such a provision potentially sends a
very strong message to the public that the city government is serious in the delivery of
their committed services. The concern to this very unconventional approach is to whom
should the payment be charged: should it fall under the responsibility of the remised
personnel or should it be shouldered by the concerned office? If so under what item it
should be charged?
One big assurance of an institutionalized Naga City Citizen’s Charter is the presence of
a legislated policy that mandates its review and updating every after local election or
assumption of new administration and a national law that mandates its establishment and
sets penal provisions for violations of therein stated stipulations. This is further
strengthened by the presence of functional feedback and complaints and redress
mechanism.
Perception of the Quality of Services Rendered by the City Government
Perception of the clients and office department heads more or less jive with each other
and their differences are not significant. The numerical ratings and adjectival ratings
from both reinforce each other but the supervisors have some qualifications to these.
While both perceive the service information is generally accessible, especially that
citizen’s charter is available in the internet anytime anywhere there is still a concern to
completely reach all household as envisioned. The estimated reach of citizen’s charter
distribution is just fifty percent and the other half is presumably unaware of the charter
and therefore excluded from the potential benefits the charter offers. In terms of
accuracy, department heads believe this is still imperfect noting the human error as a
reality factor. Nonetheless, the city is open to rectification. Clients and heads perceive
the city hall employees as generally pleasant (courteous, friendly and accommodating)
but office heads qualify there might still be instances where it would not be the same all
the time attributing it to personal circumstances. What is interesting to note is that
despite the high rating of clients as to area comfortability, supervisors think this is an
area of improvement for the city hall. Comparing self with other city government
offices, some obvious physical barriers in transaction windows need to be removed and
waiting areas need to be improved. Treatment is perceived to be same for all clients as
claimed by supervisors/department heads. Timeliness which is deemed very important
is the least rated among the dimensions looked at.
Among the pre-identified choices of personal expectations of the clients, the research
reveals that citizen’s prefer “fair treatment to clients’ (equality) as the most, closely
followed by “friendliness/greetings/courtesy to clients (pleasantness)”. While among
the open-ended responses from the clients ‘speed or fast transaction” tops the rank This
means that if the city government wants to satisfy the expectations of the public and
prioritize the actualization of quality standards, these three should not left behind as
among the prime considerations.
Given overall and detailed positive perception of quality parameters covered by the
study, it confirms that the rating on quality affects the overall satisfaction/approval
rating of the public services as far as effectiveness of public service delivery in Naga
City is concerned.

5.2 Recommendations
The summaries and conclusions lay down above yield important implications for
practical action and considerations. The results of desk review and field assessment
clearly point to a need to explore additional innovative applications to sustain the gains of
the institutionalization of the citizen’s charter especially that it is embarking on its ninth
year of implementation. The recommendations below are anchored on what Osborne and
Plastrik (1997) call as “customer strategy for accountability to their customers”.
5.2.1 City Government Process Transparency
Considering that client’s primary source of critical information would be
resources within the city hall primarily frontline staff/window staff: explore
alternative means by which the transacting public within the city hall can access,
read or browse through the Citizen’s Charter publication. 1) Set up internet kiosk
in the lobby hall or any place suited within the Main Building, which can be
manned by one or two staff detailed in Information or Complaints Desk to
monitor and assist clients who want browse through information about the city
services; 2) Invigorate the functionality of the Naga City Citizen’s Board by
updating the information therein posted while ensuring that information posted
can be actually touched and browsed through by the public. The internet kiosk,
information desk and citizen’s board can be placed in one conspicuous area
preferably at the lobby where people normally enter; a new name may be thought
of to perk up this info dissemination strategy; 3) Place a copy of the charter in all
offices that can be read and browsed by transacting public; 4) Consider producing
office charters in the form of folded brochures/booklet that can be handed over to
every transacting public right before the start of the first step/or whenever a
prospective client appears in the office to ask for information; such a copy need
not be fancy as long as information contained are accurate, updated, and visibly
written; 5) Simultaneously, the city can post the “How to Avail of the Service”
including applicable charges and fees to guide transacting public either in notice
boards or tarpaulins where it can be visibly read; and 6) Ensure that all frontliners
including those manning the proposed info dissemination strategy above are more
than well versed of the Naga City Citizen’s Charter in general and specifically
their office charter in particular, for they represent not just their respective offices
but the whole city government.
5.2.2 City Government Output Accountability
Rethink the matching of function of identification card and that of salary
dispensing card. Identification of responsible staff is basic information that
transacting public needs to know hence, the city can invest on staff readable
identification tags which should be worn all the time everywhere within the city
hall premises and during official working hours. Names and their designations are
recommended information the public will appreciate. Department heads and
chiefs of offices may set the example for staff to follow.
Consider devising ways to be able to track and monitor all complaints,
suggestions and recommendations including actions and responses. Integrating all
inputs from Text to Mayor, TEXT Naga, Community Forum, Feedback Form and

other conventional means to come up one “Naga City citizen’s charter feedback
and action” repository is very ideal. Such an integration will produce one report
that will allow the management committee to properly monitor its progress, and
compliance to Ordinance 2002-063 and RA 9485 (ARTA) and decide on matters
appropriately. Such can also be a basis for an external assessment of the charter.
Running on the tenth year, ‘a decade of citizen’s charter implementation’ may be
a good theme to evaluate its effectiveness as a program.
Consider ways how the redress mechanism can be enhanced. The rewards and
punishment system can have a little flavour if a compensation clause can be added
to the charter and inform clients that there shall be due payment if the city office is
not able to fulfil its promise of delivery at an appointed/declared time. Such mode
is being practised in the municipalities in Andhra Pradesh in India where a
compensation of Rs 50 per day of delay in service is provided for in the citizen’s
charter. Such compensation is recovered from the salary of employee and properly
implemented in over 100 local governments in the state of Andhra Pradesh (PAC,
2005). This approach sends a serious signal to both providers and clients that the
city government is serious in its service delivery functions. One idea is to charge
the compensation to the computed productivity incentive bonus of staff or to the
office MOOE. Redress should be viewed as more than listening to client’s
complaints or apologizing and correcting the mistake of the government.
5.2.3 City Government Service Quality
Explore means by which the city could alternatively deliver products to the clients:
home delivery, office delivery of documents not secured on the first hour of
transaction. While the findings only show about 37% willing to pay additional
charges in order for their products to be delivered directly at their residences or
offices, it is worth considering for services that would entail processing more than
a day. This way the client has the option to either go back and wait for the product
to be finished or have it received conveniently at home or office.
Consider re-engineering the spaces of offices for ease of movement of transacting
public. This, while the city is not yet contemplating on single window transaction.
Window labels should be ensured following the process flow/steps in the citizen’s
charter. The meantime, palliative measures can be instituted to make the areas of
transaction especially outside offices be more comfortable for transacting public.
In order to cultivate more the spirit of excellent public service the city
government may consider ways of internally motivating offices to render their
best services by recognizing offices that have more than adequately met standards
set forth in the Naga City Citizen’s Charter. This is similar to the ‘charter mark’
stamped on well-performing central department/ agencies in the UK which may
help prop up the institutionalization of the program.
A long term recommendation is to harness more the opportunities of information
technology (IT). The text message relay, community forum, downloadable forms
in the city website are good starting points. As shared by some interviewees, the
city can explore partnership with a qualified cellular phone provider and upload
charter so that transacting public can access and receive salient provisions of the
charter directly to their mobile phones. The idea to copy furnish the NCPC of all
complaints/suggestions being received by texts to Mayor or Txt Naga is also
promising approach for a more accountable government. Electronic transactions
such as those introduced in some central agencies may serve as local benchmarks
for city service continuous improvement. The possibilities of a fully e-government
approach may be just around the corner and not very far.
One final underscoring boils to the nature of citizen’s charter as a ‘contract’ between two
parties – the government and the public. The success of any undertaking lies in the
concerted effort of two parties desiring to obtain a common goal. For the citizen’s charter
to work best, there is an underscoring that the city government should also emphasize that
while citizens have every right to receive quality services as expressly granted in the
Philippine Constitution such as “right to information on matter of public concern; right to
access official records, papers and documents pertaining to government actions and
decisions; right to petition the government for redress of grievances”, citizens have the
equal duty and responsibility to its government and its country. Citizens in most cases are
also expected to exemplify behaviours supportive of the society’s rules and norms: paying
correct taxes, voting conscientiously, obeying rules and regulations, rendering voluntary
services and the like. For citizen’s charter to succeed, citizens shall also need to: study and
understand the contents of the charter; transact with complete requirements in hand; pay
appropriate fees and charges; treat service providers as equal; report suspicious and
malicious government undertaking; provide feedback and suggestions with service
improvement in mind; and demand action and redress whenever the situation calls for.
In the City of Naga, the Citizen’s Charter has proven itself as an instrument to propagate
and instil the values of accountability, transparency, quality and effectiveness in running
the affairs of the local government and in implementing a public service reform program.
As a purposeful initiative it consisted of deliberate changes to the processes of a public
sector organization to reform and “get them to run better” (Pollitt and Bouckaert 2004).
This is a major step towards a continuous improvement direction. It is not perfect public
service improvement program but what is so notable about is not only the recognitions and
citations it has received that gives pride to the local bureaucracy and its people but also the
growing involvement of the citizen’s in working together with the city to make this
initiative sustainable. Citizen’s Charter implementation may indeed be exemplifying city
governance in action.

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Reinventing Government, Addison-Wesley, New York
Ordinance No. 97-002 ‘Naga City Productivity Improvement Program’, Naga City
Council
Ordinance No. 2002-063 ‘I-Governance Ordinance of Naga City’, Naga City Council
Public Affairs Center, 2005 Karnataka’s Citizens Charters A Preliminary Assessment,

Public Affairs Center, Bangalore
Public Affairs Center, 2007 India’s Citizen’s Charters A Decade of Experience, Public
Affairs Center, Bangalore
Pande, R. & Pande, R. 2007, ‘A Model Citizen’s Charter for Disaster Management in
Uttaranchal (India)’, Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 16 No. 5
Pollitt, C. 1994, ‘The Citizen’s Charter: A Preliminary Analysis’, Public Money and
Management, April-June
Pollitt, C. & Bouckaert, G. 2004, Public Management Reform A Comparative Analysis,

2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, New York
Pollitt, C. 1998, ‘Citizen’s Charters and Public Service Provision: Lessons from the UK
Experience’, International Review of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 65 No. 3, 339-351
Republic Act 9485, ‘An Act to Improve Efficiency in the Delivery of Government
Service to The Public by Reducing Bureaucratic Red Tape, Preventing Graft and
Corruption, and Providing Penalties Therefor’, Philippine Congress
Schiavo, L. 2000, ‘Quality Standards in the Public Sector: Differences between Italy
and the UK in the Citizen’s Charter Initiative’, Public Administration, Vol. 78, No 3,
679-689
United Nations Development Programme – The Urban Governance Initiative 2003,

Generating Good Urban Governance The TUGI Report Card User’s Manual, United
Nations Development Programme, Malaysia

United Nations Development Programme 1997, Governance For Sustainable Human
Development: A UNDP Policy Document, UNDP, New York
van Dijk, Meine Pieter, 2006 Managing Cities in Developing Countries The Theory and
Practice of Urban Management, Edward Elgar Publishing Inc., Massachusetts
Wilcox, D. 1994, ‘Guide to Effective Participation. Available online
http://www.partnerships.org.uk/guide/index.htm

Date: __________________ KII Number: ____________
Time: __________________
Annexes
Category: _______________
Annex A: Interview Guide for the Head of LCR and BPLD and Head
of the CC Task Force and other Officials
I would like to thank you for your willingness to spare time and your valuable insights to this interview. It
aims to obtain information about the formulation and implementation of citizen’s charter in your city. This
research is part of the requirements to finish my MSc in Urban Management and Development at the
Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, The
Netherlands. Please be assured that your responses will be used only for academic purposes and shall
form part of the case study for Naga City. Muli po, maraming salamat.
Alvin P. Principe (Student-Researcher)
Respondent’s Profile
Name: Sex: 1.) Male _______ 2.) Female _______
Position/Designation:
Length of service in current position:
Length of service in City Hall:
Length of stay in the city/barangay: City: ___ Barangay: ____ Not resident of the city_______
Policy Formulation and Institutionalization of Citizen’s Charter

1. Are there specific standards set for the delivery of services within your office? Could
you share these specific standards?
2. How did this come about? What were the processes you went through in coming up
with it?
3. Who were involved in the formulation? How long did it take to formulate the office
charter?
4. What were the facilitating factors that led to its formulation?
5. What were the challenges/obstacles encountered?
Input Variables Legislation/Policy

Questions Obtain copy of the Executive Order/Ordinance (if any)
1. Was there any issuance from the Mayor about the formulation of office citizen’s charter?
2. When issued and what does this contain?
3. What is the objective behind it?
4. Was there any ordinance issued the City Council to institutionalize the gains brought about by
Naga City Citizen’s Charter?
5. When was this issued and what does this contain?
6. What was the vision behind it?
Input Variables Structure

Questions Obtain a copy of the task force structure and members
(if any)
1. Was there any group/committee formed to spearhead a citywide formulation of citizen’s
charter?

2. Who composed the members of the group/committee/task force?
3. What were their tasks and functions?
Input Variables Top Leadership Support

Questions Obtain possible documents/pics of activities of CC (if
any)
1. Was there verbal or written pronouncements from the Mayor/ Vice Mayor that motivated task
force/committee?
2. Was there conscious effort on the part of the Mayor/Vice Mayor to be part or be physically
present during the activities of the Citizen’s Charter?
Input Variables Resource Allocation

Questions Obtain a copy of financial allocation/budget/or any
proof of financial undertaking (if any)
1. How were the activities of the task force/committee sustained?
2. Were there financial allocations set by the city government and funded by the Budget Office?
3. Were there resources from outside? From the private sector? From the civil society?
Input Variables Management Approaches

Questions Obtain any document on ME Approach/ Evaluation
Report (if any)
1. Were there Monitoring and Evaluation mechanisms installed for the Citizen’s Charter
Program? (eg. tools/instruments developed)
2. How functional were these mechanisms? (regularity of mechanisms)
3. How were the results used during the institutionalization of citizen’s charter?
4. Is the evaluation results interrelated (dovetailed) with Performance Appraisal of the HR?
Input Variables Complementary systems instituted

Questions Obtain any document as proof of systems instituted (if
any)
1. Were there feedback mechanism/system instituted to facilitate exchange of communication
between and among stakeholders?
2. How many feedbacks were received?
3. Was there a complaints mechanism/system instituted for clients to file complaints?
4. How many complaints were answered and responded?
5. Was there a redress mechanism/system instituted for clients to expect as a result of
complaints or own system correction in order to obtain correction/remedy as may be
required?
6. How many have been given redress?
6. What were the gains/impacts of institutionalizing citizen’s charter in Naga City?
Dependent Questions
Variables
Transparency 1. Were all the requirements for the service clearly defined?
2. Were the procedures/ process flow (or steps) posted or advertised?
Is there any 3. Were all fees and charges clearly displayed or specified in the Charter?
proof of
improved If you are to rate the services/products delivery by Naga City Government in
transparency terms of TRANSPARENCY before 2001 in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest
in public and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
service
delivery from 1 2 3 4 5
before 2001 Very Disappointing Disappointing Average Good Very Good
and now? Very Un-transparent Un-transparent Average Transparent Very Transparent
At present, if you are to rate the services/products delivery by Naga City

Government in terms of TRANSPARENCY in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest
and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
1 2 3 4 5
Very Disappointing Disappointing Average Good Very Good
Very Un-transparent Un-transparent Average Transparent Very Transparent
Accountabilit 1. Do personnel wear identification card?

y 2. Was there a feedback mechanism to express appreciation/commendation
for satisfactory delivery of services and products?
Is there 3. Were there tools or mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the CC initiative?
confirmation
of enhanced If you are to rate the services/products delivery by Naga City Government in
accountability terms of ACCOUNTABILITY before 2001 in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest
among and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
frontliners
and office 1 2 3 4 5
heads/supervi Very Disappointing Disappointing Average Good Very Good
sors in public Very Un-accountable Un-accountable Average Accountable Very Accountable
service
delivery from At present, if you are to rate the services/products delivery by Naga City
before 2001 Government in terms of ACCOUNTABILITY in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the
and now? lowest and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
1 2 3 4 5
Very Un-accountable Un-accountable Average Accountable Very Accountable
Quality Accessibility: Was information to access the service readily available?

Accuracy: Were the outputs of services correct and accurate?
Is there Pleasantness: Is the public servant courteous, friendly and accommodating?
evidence of Area Comfortability: Was there a decent and comfortable waiting area?
increased Equality: Was the treatment the same for all types of clients?
quality in Timeliness: Was the standard processing time for the service followed?
public service If you are to rate the services/products of Naga City Government before 2001 in
delivery from terms of QUALITY in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest and 5 the highest, what
before 2001 would be your rating?
and now?
1 2 3 4 5
Very Low Quality Low Quality Average High Quality Very High Quality
At present, if you are to rate the services/products of Naga City Government in

terms of QUALITY in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest and 5 the highest, what
would be your rating?
1 2 3 4 5
7. How else do you think your office can better deliver/accomplish its products or
services?
Recalling the services of your office before the formulation of Naga Citizen’s Charter
(2001), what would be your rating of the effectiveness of public services then (where 1 is
the lowest and 5 the highest)?
1 2 3 4 5
Very Ineffective Ineffective Average Effective Very Effective
At present, if you are to rate the EFFECTIVENESS of services/products of your office in

a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
1 2 3 4 5
8. Do you think that Citizen’s Charter in Naga was effective? Why?
Recalling the services of the City Hall before the formulation of Naga Citizen’s Charter
(2001), what would be your rating of the EFFECTIVENESS of public services then (where
1 is the lowest and 5 the highest)?
1 2 3 4 5
At present, if you are to rate the EFFECTIVENESS of services/products of the City Hall
in a scale
of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
1 2 3 4 5
9. What do you personally think can still be done to improve the service delivery in entire
Naga City?
10. Do you agree of maintaining a citizen’s charter for Naga City? Why?
11. Is there anything more you would like to add/say?
Thank you very much for your valuable time.

Date: __________________ KII Number: ____________
Time: __________________ Category: _______________
Annex B: Interview Guide for the Mayor

I would like to thank you for your willingness to spare time and your valuable insights to this
Interview. It aims to obtain information about the formulation and institutionalization of citizen’s
charter in your city. This research is part of the requirements to finish my MSc in Urban
Management and Development at the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies at
the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Please be assured that your responses
will be used only for academic purposes and shall form part of the case study for Naga City.
Muli po, maraming salamat.
Alvin P. Principe
(Student-Researcher)
Policy Generation and Formulation and Institutionalization of Citizen’s Charter
1. What is the vision/objective (inspiration) behind the Naga City Citizen’s Charter?
2. How important to you is Naga City Citizen’s Charter? How do you treat this type of tool
for public service delivery?
3. What do you perceive as the gains or impact of citizen’s charter for the city?
4. Is there any proof of improved transparency in public service delivery?
5. Is there confirmation of enhanced accountability among frontliners and office
heads/supervisors in public service delivery?
6. Is there evidence of quality in public service delivery?
7. Do you think that Citizen’s Charter in Naga City was effective? Why?
8. Recalling the services of the City Hall before the formulation of Naga City Citizen’s
Charter (2001), what would be your rating of the EFFECTIVENESS of public services
then (where 1 is the lowest and 5 the highest)?
1 2 3 4 5
9. At present, if you are to rate the EFFECTIVENESS of services/products of the City Hall
in a scale
10. of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
1 2 3 4 5
11. What are the plans of the city to further improve public service delivery in entire Naga
City? How else can Naga City Citizen’s Charter be enhanced?
12. Years before the enactment of Republic Act 9485 in 2007, “An Act to Improve Efficiency
in the Delivery of Government Service to The Public by Reducing Bureaucratic Red
Tape, Preventing Graft and Corruption, and Providing Penalties Therefor” (that
mandates all government offices and local government units providing frontline
services to develop their respective service standards to be known as Citizen’s Charter)
Naga City has already formulated and instituted its own citizen’s charter, what do you
think of this law and its importance to the country? Is this effort replicable?
Do you consider the Citizen’s Charter as one of your legacies?

Date: __________________ KII Number: ____________
Time: __________________ Category: _______________
Annex C: Interview Guide for MNNCI and NCPC

I would like to thank you for your willingness to spare time and your valuable insights to this
Interview. It aims to obtain information about the formulation and institutionalization of citizen’s
charter in your city. This research is part of the requirements to finish my MSc in Urban
the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. There are no incorrect answers to
personal insights and perceptions. Please be assured that your responses will be used for
academic purposes only and shall form part of the case study for Naga City. Muli po, maraming
salamat.
Alvin P. Principe
Name: Sex: 1.) Male _______ 2.) Female _______
Age:
Current Position:
Institution:
Length of service in the institution:
Length of stay in the city/barangay: City: _________ Barangay: __________
Formulation and Institutionalization of Naga City Citizen’s Charter

1. Are you aware of the Naga City Citizen’s Charter?
2. Have you received a copy and read the material?
3. How did you obtain/learn about it? (probe source of information access)
4. What do you think about the Naga City Citizen’s Charter? What do you think are its
objective/s?
5. Have you or your organization/institution been requested to participate in the
formulation of the charter, more particularly in setting standards? (If yes, probe the role
played, support provided, level of interest and participation)
6. Have you or your organization been invited to attend a forum or orientation about
citizen’s charter? (If yes, probe the content, impressions, comments, level of interest
and participation)
7. Would you know of any city government activity conducted (esp. those pertaining to
citizen’s charter) that was meant to share or inform what the city is doing for the
improvement of service delivery?
8. Do you think that your institution/organization should have been informed/ consulted/
involved in the formulation of Naga City Citizen’s Charter? Why?
9. What do you think were the gains/impact of institutionalizing citizen’s charter in Naga
City?
Transparency • Were all the requirements for the service clearly defined?
• Were the procedures/ process flow (or steps) posted or advertised? Were all
Is there any fees and charges clearly displayed or specified in the Charter?
proof of • If you are to rate the services/products delivery by Naga City Government in
improved terms of TRANSPARENCY before 2001 in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest
transparency in and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
public service
1 2 3 4 5
delivery from Very Disappointing Disappointing Average Good Very Good
before 2001 Very Un-transparent Un-transparent Average Transparent Very Transparent
and now?
• At present, if you are to rate the services/products delivery by Naga City
Government in terms of TRANSPARENCY in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the
lowest and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
1 2 3 4 5
Very Un-transparent Un-transparent Average Transparent Very Transparent
Accountability • Do personnel wear identification card?

• Was there a complaint mechanism for unsatisfactory services/products?
Is there • Was there a feedback mechanism to express appreciation/commendation
confirmation of for satisfactory delivery of services and products?
enhanced • Were there tools or mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the CC initiative?
accountability • If you are to rate the services/products delivery by Naga City Government
among in terms of ACCOUNTABILITY before 2001 in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the
frontliners and lowest and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
office
1 2 3 4 5
heads/supervis Very Disappointing Disappointing Average Good Very Good
ors in public Very Un-accountable Un-accountable Average Accountable Very Accountable
service delivery
from before • At present, if you are to rate the services/products delivery by Naga City
2003 and now? Government in terms of ACCOUNTABILITY in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the
lowest and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
1 2 3 4 5
Very Un-accountable Un-accountable Average Accountable Very Accountable
Quality • Accessibility: Was information to access the service readily available?

• Accuracy: Were the outputs of services correct and accurate?
Is there • Pleasantness: Is the public servant courteous, friendly and
evidence of accommodating?
increased • Area Comfortability: Was there a decent and comfortable waiting area?
quality in public • Equality: Was the treatment the same for all types of clients?
service delivery • Timeliness: Was the standard processing time for the service followed?
from before • If you are to rate the services/products of Naga City Government before
2001 and now? 2001 in terms of QUALITY in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest and 5 the
highest, what would be your rating?
1 2 3 4 5

• At present, if you are to rate the services/products of Naga City
Government in terms of QUALITY in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest
and 5 the highest, what would be your rating?
1 2 3 4 5
10. Do you think that Citizen’s Charter in Naga was effective? Why?
11. If you are to rate the EFFECTIVENESS of services/products of Naga City Government before
2001 in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest, what would be your rating?
1 2 3 4 5
12. At present, if you are to rate the EFFECTIVENESS of services/products of Naga City
Government in a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest, what would be your
rating?
1 2 3 4 5
13. What do you personally think can still be done to improve the public service delivery of
the City Hall in Naga City?
14. Do you agree of maintaining a citizen’s charter for Naga City? Why?
15. Is there anything more you would like to add/say?

Date: __________________ OSQ Number ____________
Time: __________________ Remarks _______________
Annex D: Frontline Office Survey Questionnaire

I would like to thank you for your willingness to spare time and answer this questionnaire that is
specially meant for your office. This aims to obtain information about the implementation of
citizen’s charter in your city. This research is part of the requirements to finish my MSc in Urban
the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Please be assured that your responses
will be used only for academic purposes and shall form part of the case study for Naga City.
Muli po, maraming salamat.
Alvin P. Principe
Instructions: Please put check mark on blank spaces and write legibly on the spaces
provided. Do not leave any item unanswered. You may use the side spaces if it’s needed.
Kindly hand-over accomplished questionnaire to ________________________ and please
accept my simple token. Should you have comment/s please send at
[email protected] you very much for your valuable time.
1. Respondent’s Profile
Sex: 1.) Male _______ 2.) Female _______
Age:
Official Designation in Office:
Length of Service in the Office: Years _______ Months _______
Highest Educational Attainment: a.) High School Graduate ______
b.) College undergraduate _______
c.) College Graduate (Bachelors’ Degree)_____
d.) Post College (Masters) _______
e.) Others _____________________
B. Knowledge/Awareness of Staff on Office Citizen’s Charter
1. What are the office services or products you ___________________________________________
provide/deliver to your clients/customers? ___________________________________________
___________________________________________
2. Are you involved in the delivery of ALL services No, only for selected services/products _____
you mentioned in Q1?
Yes, I am involved in ALL services _____
3. Are there official procedures (steps) that you No, there are no official procedures (steps) _____
refer to/follow in accomplishing your part to the
products/services you mentioned? Yes, there are official procedures (steps) ____
4. Are you the only one accountable to accomplish No, there is another one in the office who is also
the particular step/part in the service? assigned to fulfill that particular step/task_____
Yes, I am the only one in charge of accomplishing that

particular step/task ______

Please indicate your part/task to at least one office
product/service:
5. What standards (time, work quality, etc.) are 1)Time to accomplish my part______
expected of you in accomplishing your part/task 2) Accuracy/No mistake/ No repeat work______
in the service? 3) Fair treatment to all clients______
4) Friendliness/ greeting/ courtesy to clients _____
(Check and identify as many as appropriate) 5) On time reporting to duty______
6) On time departure after duty ______
7) Extra help/assistance ______
8) Extended service hours ______
9) Wearing of own ID _____
10) Others (please specify)
6. Are there requirements that clients/customers No, there is/ are no requirement/s
need to submit before or during the steps in
accomplishing the products/services? Yes, there is/are ______________________
Cite one requirement for at least one office

product/service:
7. Are there fees/charges that clients need to pay No, there is no fee required __________
first? And how much?
Yes, there is a fee/charge ________ How much?
Give an example: Product 1:__________________

Fee: __________
8. Who in particular receives payment for the

services/products accomplished?
9. Are you aware of “Naga City Citizen’s Charter”? No, I have not heard about it (ever) __________
Yes, I know that our office is part of it ________
10. How long does it take for the client/customer to Please specify:
receive/obtain the products/services you
mentioned in Q1? Product 1 ___________________________
Time: _______
Product2 ____________________________
Time: _______
C. Attitude of Staff (please read carefully)

11. “I believe that my service to our clients is a valuable contribution to the overall city public service”.
Strongly Disagree___ Disagree___ Agree ___ Strongly Agree___ Neither Agree nor Disagree___
12. “I don’t care if I am not able to finish/accomplish my part of the office work”.

13. “I am generally enthusiastic to come to office and do my part of the work”.
14. “I simply have no choice, I report to office and fulfill my part because I am obliged to”.
15. “I am motivated to work if I see my officemates conscientiously working”.
D. Capacity Building
16. Have you attended any orientation or training No, never ________ (please proceed to Q18)
on citizen’s charter?
Yes, I have attended _______
17. Have you gained knowledge or skills in No, (ineffective orientation/training) _____
attending the said orientation or training that
you practice now? Yes, (effective orientation training) _____
18. Relevant to your office works, particularly to Please specify:

your task, what kind of training/ orientation do
you think you would attend and learn from?
E. Systems Employed
19. If you commit mistake in your part of the work No______
(based on standards mentioned in Q5), do
you get punished/sanctioned from office? Yes ______ (please specify what you consider as punishment
eg. reprimand, salary/bonus deduction, etc. )
20. If you have done your work well within or No ______

above the standards (mentioned in Q5), do
you get rewarded from office? Yes ______(please specify what you consider as reward. eg
performance bonus, letter of commendation, etc.)
_______________________________________
21. Is there an official procedure you follow when No, there is none _____
dissatisfied customers/clients complain about
the office service/product? Yes, there is official procedure ______
Please specify procedure:

22. What types of complaints have you or your ______________________________________________
office received from your clients? Please ______________________________________________
share as many as you can. ______________________________________________
F. Accessibility
23. What are the means by which your office a) Brochure/leaflet _______
disseminates information about the b) Part of the Naga City Citizen’s Charter/publication ____
c) Tarpaulin/Notice Board/Poster placed outside the office____

services/products you have? d) Posted in Naga City Website _____
e) Advertised in radio/tv/journal _______
Check or identify as many as you know f) Others (pls. specify) __________________
24. How else do you personally think how ________________________________________________

your office services/ products can be ________________________________________________
disseminated to the public? ________________________________________________
G. Resource Availability
25. Personally, what do you think are the ________________________________________________
reasons why you would not be able to meet ________________________________________________
the standards (mentioned in Q5) set in your ________________________________________________
office procedures? ________________________________________________
26. Are your office supplies and equipment Yes, all the time _______
(resources) sufficient for you to deliver/
accomplish your part/task of the office No. We/I need _______________________________
product or service as per required
standard?
H. Leadership Style
26. “I believe our office can deliver/accomplish better products/services if our Department/Office Head/Supervisor is
more output/performance oriented”.
27. “I believe our city government can deliver/accomplish better products/services if our Mayor is less
output/performance oriented”.
I.Personal Opinion
29. How else do you think your personal _____________________________________________
performance can improve? _____________________________________________
30. How else do you think your office can better _____________________________________________
deliver/accomplish its products or services? _____________________________________________
31. Do you agree of maintaining an office citizen’s _____________________________________________

charter? Why? _____________________________________________

Date: __________________ CQ Number ____________
Time: __________________ Remarks ________________
Annex E: Client Questionnaire

I would like to thank you for your willingness to spare time and answer this questionnaire. This
aims to obtain information about the implementation of citizen’s charter in your city. This
research is part of the requirements to finish my MSc in Urban Management and Development
at the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies at the Erasmus University in
Rotterdam, The Netherlands. There is no right or wrong answer as this pertains to your insights
and opinions. Please be assured that your responses will be used only for academic purposes
and shall form part of the case study for Naga City.
Alvin P. Principe
Instructions: Please put check mark ( ) on blank spaces and write legibly on the spaces provided. Do
not leave any item unanswered. You may use the side spaces if it’s needed. Should you have
comment/s please send at email address: [email protected]. Thank you very much.
Have you or any member of your household No ____

applied/availed product or service from any of the Yes ____ Kindly specify:
City Hall offices in the last eight years? Product/Service_________ Office:_________________
Sex: 1.) Male _______ 2.) Female _______
Age:
Employment/Livelihood:
Length of stay in the city/barangay: City: _________ Barangay: __________
Highest Educational Attainment: a.) Elementary Graduate ______ d.) College Undergraduate______
b.) High School Graduate______ e.) College Graduate________
c.) High School Undergraduate ____ e.) Post College (Masters) ______
f.) Others_________________
Knowledge/Awareness on Naga Citizen’s Charter
1. Where did you get the information how to 1) From the frontline staff/ At the service window ______
avail of the services/products of the City 2) Brochure/leaflet/flyer _______
Hall? 3) In the Naga Citizen’s Charter publication ____
4) Tarpaulin/Notice Board/Poster placed outside the office____
(Check or identify as many as applicable) 5) In the Marikina City Website _____
6) Advertisement in radio/tv/journal _______
7) Others (pls. specify) __________________
2. How much time did it take for you to Please specify:
receive/obtain the products/services you Product/service 1 _______________ Time: _______________
applied for? Product/service 2 ________________ Time: _______________
3. Is there a payment/fee for the service you Yes___ No____ (proceed to Q6)
availed?

4. Who/What office in particular received ___________________________________________________
payment of fees/charges? __________________________________________________
5. Did you receive a receipt? Yes___ No____
6. Are you aware of “Naga City Citizen’s No, I have not heard about it (ever) ______
Charter”?
Yes, I am aware_____
7. Is your household or anyone of you given a No, we have not received _____
copy?
Yes, we have been given a copy_____
8. Are you aware that there are certain No, I am not aware of the standards set_____
standards that are supposed to be followed
based on the Naga Citizen’s Charter? Yes, I am aware of the standards set______
Please state at least one standard you know is declared in Naga

City Citizen’s Charter:
______________________________________________
9. Did you ever try to give extra money/favor Yes, I did ____
(grease money) to have your product/
service finished first/ahead than the rest? No, I didn’t ____
10. In order to receive the products/services No, I’m not. I will just pick it up/wait in the city hall. ____
directly in your residence/office would you
be willing to pay additional? Yes, I am willing pay additional to have the product delivered
directly at my residence/office ____
11. Have you experienced receiving Yes _____

products/services that are unacceptable/
unsatisfactory? No _____
Did you ever complain? Why? Specify details:

___________________________________________________
Participation
12. In the last eight years, have you or any member of your Yes, I/We was invited/ attended _____
household been invited or requested by the city government
to participate in the development of city citizen’s charter No, there was no invitation that I knew of _____
(standards development for the Naga City Citizen’s Charter)?
13. In the last eight years, have you or any member of your Yes, I/We attended _____
household attended any forum/orientation on citizen’s
charter? No, there was no forum/orientation that I knew
of _____
Transparency
14. Did you find the requirements in availing the service clear and Yes ______ No _______
understandable?
15. Were the procedures/ process flow (or steps) posted or advertised? Yes ______ No _______
16. Were the fees and charges (if any) specified, posted or advertised? Yes _______ No_______
Accountability
17. Were the names of the frontline staff and officers displayed properly Yes ______ No ______
for anyone to identify and read?
18. Were there any specified and posted procedures how to complain if Yes _______ No ________
there are unsatisfactory services or products?
19. Were there specified and posted procedures how to express Yes _______ No _______
appreciation/commendation (or opinion) for satisfactory
products/services rendered?
20. Based on your observation, experience, what do frontline staff and ______________________________________
officers do if they encounter oral complaints or feedback? ______________________________________
______________________________________
Quality
21. What standards do you personally expect from the 1)Timeliness_________
products/services in the City Hall? 2) Accuracy/No mistake/ no repeat work _____
3) Fair treatment to all clients________
(Check and identify as many as appropriate) 4) Friendliness/ greeting/ courtesy to clients ___
5) Availability on declared time ________
6) Extra help/assistance ________
7) Extended service hours ______
8) Comfortable waiting area _____
9) Others (please specify)
________________________________
22. Accessibility: Is information to access the service readily Yes______ No _______
available?
23. Pleasantness: Is the public servant courteous, friendly and Yes______ No_______
accommodating?
24. Area Comfortability: Is there a decent and comfortable Yes______ No _______
waiting area?
25. Accuracy: Are the outputs of services correct and accurate? Yes ______ No _______
26. Equality: Is the treatment the same for all types of clients? Yes ______ No_______
27. Timeliness: Is the standard processing time for the service Yes ______ No _______
followed?
Opinion
28. How did you find the product/service you availed? Or the manner by which the product or service was delivered
or accomplished?
1 2 3 4 5
29. Recalling the services of the City Hall before the formulation of Naga Citizen’s Charter (2001), what would be
your rating of the effectiveness of public services then (where 1 is the lowest and 5 the highest)?
1 2 3 4 5
30. At present, if you are to rate the overall effectiveness of public services of City Hall (where 1 is the lowest and 5
the highest) what is your rating?
1 2 3 4 5
31. What other ways can you suggest to ___________________________________________________
improve the delivery of services of City Hall? ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Annex F: Client’s Suggestions to Improve Public Service Delivery
Positive Remarks Positive Remarks
the services are okay nothing more, satisfied with city hall services
Mayor is doing everything to make the the services are okay, continue
process fast continue the good public service
contented with the services in the city hall
Information Related Information Related
post all the necessary information (steps) post all the necessary information (steps) for
for clients benefits clients benefits
more information dissemination install information desk upon entering the
city hall specially to new clients
designate desk officer at the city hall lobby at
all times
Systems Related Systems Related
monitor employees approach with the organize the processes
clients minimize / address the long queue
extend the time of renewal of business
permit (one stop shop duration is not
enough)
year-round one stop shop
Physical Enhancement of City hall Offices Physical enhancement

and Building receiving area should be spacious
spacious offices in every department
orderly
more organize office in every department
more waiting area for clients comfort
more signages
Quality Related Quality Related
Fairness/consistency in giving public fair treatment to all types of clients
services maintain fast service / one day processing or
Accuracy less if possible
service with a smile
services must always be consistent and
orderly
give preference to those who are living far
from city hall
General administration General Administration
improve administration the mayor should lead for people to follow
lower taxes employees and clients must coordinate
additional equipment during peak season
educate people/residents on CC
impose the wearing of right uniform
Frontline Staff Related Frontline Staff Related
employees should come on time to finish ID must be worn
on time be approachable
frontline staff continue being kind and respect to clients
attentive to customers issue receipts all the time
more understanding extend assistance to clients
more patience devote attention to its clients
continue helping those who needs help be at their post at all times
should not be lazy be specific in giving time when to return for
employees must know their duties and follow up
responsibilities should not make clients wait
more approachable staff strictly follow guidelines in providing service
additional staff to deliver the services exercise first come first served basis
efficiently render services during break time / reliever
CTO should prepare change for fast for continuous service
processing must do their job in line to what is stipulated
in the charter
must know their duties and responsibilities to
effectively help clients
inform clients of all payables including raffle
tickets, explain purpose of ticket and don’t
force to buy
Annex G: Staff’s Suggestions How the Office Can Better Deliver
Services
Mobility/ Service Vehicle/motorcycle More equipment like computer, scanner and
other high tech equipment
Upgraded technology Serve client in good manner
Trainings and seminars Assist client for procedures in our office
Additional manpower If our department head is more
output/performance oriented
Better working condition Microfilm our documents to protect and
preserve perpetual records of our office
(whenever it is handed down from generation to
generation
Computerization Communicating and monitoring of individual
functions and duties
Must have good manner towards clients If all employees assigned in their respective
task shall do their part and work as one and
supported by our Head of Office, every office
will run better and accomplish its services
By seeking the best value from use of
government resources to give client more and
efficient services for less resources
By giving services efficiently
By rewarding employees of exemplary
performance
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MASTER’S PROGRAMME IN URBAN MANAGEMENT

(October 2008 – September 2009)

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative:

Alvin Penaranda Principe

Supervisor: Alberto Gianoli

UMD 5 Report number:

The accountability mechanisms established in support of the I-Governance Program

Keywords: Citizen’s Charter, Public Sector Reform Program, New Public

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter iv

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter v

ARD-GOLD – Associates in Rural Development – Governance for Local

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter vi

Summary ............................................................................................. iii

Abbreviations and Acronyms ........................................................... vi

Table of Contents .............................................................................. vii

List of Tables ...................................................................................... ix

List of Figures ...................................................................................... x

Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................... 1

Conclusions and Recommendations................................................ 75

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter ix

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter x

“Reinventing public institutions is herculean work. To succeed, you must find

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 1

Interestingly, prior to the passage of this law, one city

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 2

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 3

1.2 Research Objectives and Questions

Objective 1: Investigate the strategies and approaches employed in formulating,

Proposition: The adequacy and appropriateness of strategies and approaches used in

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 4

Objective 3: Analyze the accountability mechanisms established in the citizen’s charter.

1.3 Research Relevance

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 6

2.1 Public Sector Management Reform

2.2 New Public Management

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 7

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 8

Autonomy of Utility Performance Targets Accountability for

(Source: van Dijk, 2006, p.45)

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 10

2.3 Good Governance

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 11

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 12

2.4 The Consumer, the Client and the Citizen

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 13

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 14

2.5 Some Findings from Citizen’s Charter

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 15

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 19

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 20

2.6 Theoretical Background and Analytical Framework

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 21

New Public Management Good Urban Governance

Figure 3:The Study’s Analytical Framework

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 22

3.1 Research Area

3.2 Research Framework

Exploring Public Service Improvement Initiative: A Case Study of Citizen’s Charter 23

Research Background Data Collection

Posting of Client Survey

Display/specific Client Survey

Presence of Client Survey

Accuracy of Client Survey

Comfortability Client Survey

Equality of Client Survey

Timeliness Client Survey