Local Government’s Policies and Citizens’ Complaints

Management: The Case of Karachi

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Local Government’s Policies and Citizens’ Complaints Management: The Case of Karachi

The concept of strong and robust governance in cities and urban dwellings is considered to be of

pivotal significance because governments and related governing bodies are responsible for

meeting the needs and requirements of the citizens. The concept of good governance goes

beyond the concept of serving specific needs of selected groups as it focuses on every citizen

within the country. It is a complete process that supports public organizations to deliver success

through the formulation of polices needed to improve public services. Characteristics of good

governance framework includes improved responsiveness to cater the needs, problems, and

complaints of the general public. The existing case study reflects the local government’s

polices’ pertaining to good governance and citizen’s complaints management using Karachi,

Pakistan as case study.

While in Pakistan, the concept of good governance had been in scrutiny. According to Cheemaa,

Mehmoodb and Khana (2019), local governance in Pakistan has a very chaotic history. This is

because of political instability and alternating changes in governments between democratic and

military regimes. As a nation that came out from British’s rule in 1947, the old feudal system is

still intact to control lands that are in the power of the elite class, while the rural class is

controlled through institutionalized powers. The feudal system coupled with governmental

agencies, businesses, and civil society has further led to weak governance. In Pakistan, the

provincial legislation is responsible for implementing the local governance. As a result, power

structures and governance mechanism are based on political interests and associations, which are

responsible for influencing the key political decisions (Cheemaa, Mehmoodb and Khana, 2019),

Schöberlein, 2019). Furthermore, corruption in governmental agencies is further deemed to a

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problem that is prevalent in Pakistani governmental agencies that have hindered the

implementation of good governance (Schöberlein, 2019).

In order to meet up the citizens’ needs and requirements, the Pakistan Citizens Portal (PCP) had

been established by the existing Prime Minister, Imran Khan, in October, 2018. This step had

been undertaken as a strategy to improve the efficiency of the public organizations and to allow

Pakistani citizens to register their complaints online. Furthermore, the portal supported

management of complaints of both local and overseas Pakistani. Using information and

communication technology, the PCP application was also developed that allowed Pakistanis to

register their complaints through the use of their smart phones and smart devices. The app gave

them access to them to more than 7000 governmental offices. The system had been designed in

such a manner that the complaints would reach to the intended departments. Through this

system, citizens were able to provide evidence in the form of audios, images, and videos files for

their complaints. Within the period of 10 days, the head of the concerned departments were

obliged to resolve the complaints. The PCP system also comprises of a dashboard, which is

accessible to the governmental organizations. Complaints files can be accessed by different

ministries and departments through this dashboard. The system also comprises of a feedback

system, which allows the citizens to give their feedback on it and to rate the quality of their

services. The objective of installing such a system was to control the hierarchal powers of

bureaucrats, ministries, ministers, and employees accountable, to remove corruption, and to

overall serve the general public.

The project has been undertaken by the PTI government to address the complaints of the citizens,

to improve governmental officials’ accountability, and to improve the overall efficiency of

services delivered by the public organizations. For citizens without smart devices, the local

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government has placed an inter-departmental conflict system that ensures that public complaints

are handled and managed effectively through the adoption of good governance practices. Since

the inception of the system, it has been efficient in managing public grievances. It was able to

managed 1.23 million complaints and has successfully resolved 1.05 million. This demonstrates

that its success rate was 86%. In terms of federal government, success rate for Punjab was found

to be 92%, for KPK it was 88%, for Federal Capital it was 87%, for Balochistan it was 89

percent, for GB it was 79%, and for Sindh it was 72%. Statistics demonstrate that areas where

PTI government was in power has higher success rate as compared to the Sindh, which had a

lower rate. Complaints made by citizens were related to services such as education, health, land

revenues, and police.

The Case Study of Karachi

In Karachi, the Citizen Complaint and Information System (CCIS) has been undertaken to handle

complaints made by citizens. The CCIS project has been undertaken by Karachi Metropolitan

Corporation (KMC). The duties of the organization is to maintain roads, bridges, storm drains

management, medical colleges and specialized hospitals, zoological gardens, solid waste

management, traffic engineering, fire fighting, and municipal watch and ward. The CCIS project

is responsible for the automation of the complaints, supporting management, escalation of

resolving complaints, conducting inquiries, and managing complaints based on intended

departments or individuals. Through this system, the complaints can be registered by citizens of

Karachi through three methods:

 Established call centers known as Citizen Call Centre

 Physical citizens facilitation center

 Through the website

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Authorized personnel are responsible for managing the complaints starting from its inception till

its resolution. The system is considered to a fully integrated and operational system, which uses

client and server, and relationship database management technology. Through this project, the

following areas were improved for service delivery and complaint management:

 Installation of web-based complaint management and monitoring system

 Improving the call center operations for managing customer complaints

 Installation of physical walk-in centers for customers

 Design and implementation of web portal.

 Connection to other citizen complaint portals

The CCIS network is based on 4-Tier complaint network. The four tiers are listed as follows:

 The first tier comprises of the contact center

 The second tier comprises of the data center located at Civic Center, Karachi.

 The third tier comprises of complaint cells installed in different towns. They are located

in over 21 locations in the city.

 The fourth tier comprises of Quality Control based on ISO Certifications.

This system has been designed to manage and resolve problems for citizens based on federal and

provincial levels. Complaints have been categorized based on district, town, and city categories.

Previously, KMC only had manual walk-in complaint system. Through CCIS, complaints can be

filed online or through calls made to the call center to register them. Because physical complaint

systems were manual, the overall service delivery was slow. Through this system, the complaint

system at KMC has become more centralized, where the data is stored in data and can be

accessed only by authorized personnel. Overall, the system has improved quality of service

delivery and performance.

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For the citizens of Karachi, this system is considered to be significantly beneficial.

Firstly, complaints can be made online through the web-portal or through call centers

without the requirement of visiting the center physically. In this way, resources such

as money, time, and fuel are saved. CCIS supports efficiency and focuses on making

life easy for Karachi residents.

The following characteristics of the system are discussed and outlined as follows:

 It has different walk-in complaint centers that are established all over the

Karachi city. Primary centers are at Civic Center, KBCA, and KW&SB.

Furthermore, it is available at other 18 locations in the city.

 Quality Control Center has been established to verify and manage complaints

and to get feedback of the users.

 Centralized Database Management System

 25-seat call center for on-call complaints registration and updates

 Web portal for complain registration and management.

 Adoption of ISO 9001 quality management system since 2008.

CCIS is fully operation 24/7. Complaints are categorized based on town in Karachi, KWSB,

KBCA, or senior director. The City Mayor is responsible for monitoring and supervising the

complaints that are lodged. The heads of the organizations of KW&SB, KBC, and Town Mayors

are responsible for monitoring complaints based on categories of town and departments. Their

duty is to formulate directives based on the complaints to resolve problems for the citizens based

on their area and department.

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For KMC, resolving complaints in timely manner is essential. KMC workforce are provided with

training to ensure that they focus on meeting the needs and requirements of the users.

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 References:

Cheemaa, A.R., Mehmoodb, A. and Khana, F.A., 2019, Challenges to citizen-driven local governance:

Lessons from Pakistan.

Chandio, A.R., LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN PAKISTAN: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES.

Dahri, A.S. and Maitlo, A.A., 2020. Usability of eGovernance application for citizens of Pakistan.

Shaikh, A.Z., Shah, U.L. and Wijekuruppu, C., 2016. Public service delivery and e-governance: The case

of Pakistan. International Journal for Infonomics, 9(2), pp.1161-1170.

Saud, A. and Khan, K.A., 2016. Decentralization and Local Government Structures: Key to Strengthening

Democracy in Pakistan. Journal of Political Studies, 23(2).

Schöberlein, J., 2019. Strategies to tackle corruption in local government procurement in Asia and Africa.

Transparency International..