BiH’s New Citizen Service Centers Cut Wait Time by Half
When Radomir Macar, a pensioner from Sokolac, needed documents to prove his citizenship, he never expected the process would be so quick. “Today has been great,” he said. “I finished everything in six minutes. It’s a rarity to find such fast service.”
The service was provided by Gorazde’s new Citizen Service Center, better known as a “One Stop Shop” (OSS). OSS’s dramatically reduce waiting times for citizens by consolidating customer service for the entire municipality at one location.
Says Gorazde Mayor Mustafa Kurtovic, “People used to have to traipse from the ground floor to the third floor to the second floor... Now they can complete their business in one place in just a few minutes. That makes citizens feel they are worth something.”
Gorazde’s OSS is part of the $20 million Government Accountability Project (GAP) jointly funded by USAID and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The project is helping improve the services of 40 local governments throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Gorazde, over 7,000 people pass through the OSS each month. Of those, 1,200 file requests. Therefore, efficiency is a top priority. For example, every employee now has access to a document tracking system that shows the exact status of every request filed so citizens do not have to always seek out the person who originally took their request.
Recently, Gorazde Cantonal TV conducted a survey on citizens’ opinions about the OSS. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive.
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| Radomir Macar waited only six minutes for a birth certificate at Gorazde’s
Citizen Service Center |
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