The Citizens’ Charter is an ideal instrument of organizational transparency and accountability, but it has its own limitations. Identify the limitations and suggest measures for greater effectiveness of the Citizens’ Charter. (UPSC IAS Mains 2018 General Studies Paper – 2)
Citizens’ Charter is a voluntary declaration by a Government agency about its mandate, what to expect by way of services and how to seek a remedy if something goes wrong. In doing so, it aims to realize the principles of transparency, accountability and responsiveness of good governance. However, its effectiveness has been limited due to reasons mentioned below.
Limitations
- Devoid of Participatory Approach in consulting stakeholders like the cutting edge staff and end – users in its formulation.
- Absence of critical information. When mentioned, measurable standards of delivery are rarely defined.
- Lack of Public Awareness among end-users about the commitments under Citizens’ Charter.
- Charters are rarely updated.
- Lack of adherence by organisation to their Citizens’ Charter since there is no mechanism to compensate the citizen if the organization defaults.
- Tendency to have a uniform Citizens’ Charter for all offices under the parent organization overlooks local issues.
- Citizens’ Charter has still not been adopted by all Ministries/Departments.
- Concerned staff were not adequately trained and sensitised about its spirit and content.
Measures to Make Citizens’ Charter Effective
- Formulation of Citizens’ Charter should be a decentralized activity with the head office providing only broad guidelines and a wide consultation process with all stakeholders.
- Citizens’ Charter must be precise and make specific commitments of service delivery standards in quantifiable terms.
- Clearly lay down the redressal mechanism which the organization is bound to provide if it has defaulted on the promised standards of delivery.
- Periodic evaluation of Citizens’ Charter through external agency.
- Hold officers accountable for results by fixing responsibility in cases of default.
- Internal restructuring should precede Citizens’ Charter formulation to make them more credible and effective than those designed as mere desk exercises without any system re-engineering.
- Wider Publicity about it in vernacular languages.
Therefore, given the importance of Citizens’ Charters in ensuring good governance, urgent steps including those mentioned above need to be taken to ensure they are effective in achieving their objective.
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