Model Question and Answers for APSC | 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 or the Citizens Charter.

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 or the Citizens Charter.

Model Question and Answers for APSC | 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 or the Citizens Charter.

Ans: A Citizens' Charter represents the commitment of the Organisation towards standard, quality and time frame of service delivery, grievance redress mechanism, transparency and accountability. Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, in its efforts to provide more responsive and citizen-friendly governance coordinates the efforts to formulate and operationalise Citizens' Charters.

Citizen Charter as a way to make an organisation more open and responsible:

  • Citizen Charter makes it easier for the average person to help an organisation work well by letting them know what the organization's goals are.
  • It helps cut down on corruption by having clear rules, and this ensures accountability.
  • It makes the public delivery system more user-friendly and easier for people to It also makes the system more efficient and effective.
  • It saves money, keeps things from taking too long, and cuts down on bureaucracy.
  • Citizen Charter set service standards, letting people have high hopes for an organisation and pushing them to work hard.
  • It makes it easier for people to get access and gives them more choices.

 

Citizen Charter's Limits:

  • Because people don't know about it and don't hear enough about it, they don't trust it. This is a big problem.
  • There is no training for the people who do the work and who are in charge.
  • There is a difference in rank between the officers and the operational staff, which is a
  • Officers and staff have different ways of Supervisors and staff are not sensitive because they haven't been trained.
  • Staff isn't ready to take on the responsibility because they don't have the motivation or accountability to do so. Rules and procedures that aren't changed and are hard to follow
  • Most of the time, the Charters were not made through a process of consultation.
  • Most service providers don't know what the Charter is about, what its goals are, or what its main parts are.
  • Also, none of the Departments evaluated had done enough to get the word out about the Most Departments are still in the beginning or middle stages of putting their Charters into place.
  • No money has been set aside to make people aware of the Citizens' Charter or to teach the staff about the different parts of the Charter.

 

Steps that can be taken to make the Citizen's Charters work better:

  • Charters should make it clear what will happen if the standards set out in the Charter aren't met and what will be done about it. The first step could be to put the charter out in the local languages.
  • It is better to make a few promises that you can keep than to make a long list of aspirations that are high-minded but not realistic. So, citizen charters should be easy to understand and have clear goals.
  • Before making a charter, the organisation should change how its internal systems and processes work.
  • One size does not fit all. The Citizens' Charter should be close to the way things are on the ground and in the area.
  • Firm promises need to be made. Charters should be evaluated every so often.
  • Every citizen charter needs to be made in a way that is based on consensus and is practical, with goals that can be met.

It's time for the Citizen Charter programme to be brought back to government agencies so that they can be accountable not only to their customers but also to themselves.