KATHMANDU, June 10: A survey conducted by Transparency International Nepal has shown slight improvement in public service delivery at the local levels in the aftermath of the local elections held last year.
The survey entitled Public Service Survey 2074 which compares public service delivery between 2016 and 2017 states that the presence of elected peoples' representatives helped to improve public service delivery at the local units. When the state of public service delivery was surveyed in 2016 in the local bodies of eight districts, only 1.8 percent of the service seekers were satisfied from the service delivery whereas the percentage of satisfied service seekers has reached 8.5 percent in 2017, the year when peoples' representatives assumed the office.
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“Peoples' confidence level has increased. But both the service delivery and complaint hearing mechanism of public offices are still weak,” said Prakash Bhattarai, lead researcher of the survey.
Until last year's election, the local bodies were running without elected representatives for almost two decades.
The survey was conducted in 13 different offices of eight districts including Siraha, Dolakha, Rautahat, Rupandehi, Baglung, Banke, Dang and Darchula. Among the surveyed offices, most of the service seekers of the government hospitals and land revenue offices and survey offices have complained of problems in receiving services.
Out of 3,168 respondents of 396 households, 27.4 percent service seekers of government hospitals complained in receiving service delivery. Similarly, 21 percent respondents complained of problems in receiving service from land revenue offices whereas 15.7 percent of respondents complained of problems in receiving services from rural municipalities and municipalities.
