By
Owen Baluku Alton
The
officials were last Thursday speaking during a meeting at Central Division Hall
in Kasese town where they were accompanied by officials from other service
Uganda one stop service centers from Gulu,Jinja,Entebbe and Mbale.
Sarah
Lwanga Nuliuti,the Principal Management Analyst from Ministry of public service
said “the team from different pilot centers came to Kasese to benchmark because
as one of the five pilot centers,Kasese has moved faster than any other service
Uganda one stop centers.
“The
team for different Pilot centers including Entebbe,Ministry of Public
Service,Jinja,Gulu and Mbale came to Kasese for benchmarking simply because it
is one of the centers that is moving faster than any other apart from the
ministry of public service that was launched in January 2019.”
Sarah
says other pilot centers have not been moving at the same pace with Kasese due
to political,infrastructural and financial challenges.
However,she says: “though Kasese faces the same
challenges,it is moving faster and is being looked at the model service Uganda center”.She
adds “that’s why other centers came here to benchmark,share experiences of the
story of Kasese,learn from them,but also ensure that there are those good
practices that they will learn from the model one stop service center and take
back to their service Uganda centers.”
Lwanga underscores the importance of benchmarking
as a move that “helps in interaction, to share knowledge and understanding the
concept of OSSCs even further.”
Sarah,who
is a team member on coordination for the establishment and operationalisation
of service Uganda said Municipal officers such as town clerks,human resource
officers,CDOs,can do strategy work in their offices but that routine work like
inquiries and filling of forms can be handled at the service center without
requiring the departmental heads.
Kalle
Sepp,the Head of Estonian Delegation says it is a great opportunity for Estonia
to cooperate with Uganda,noting that Tallin Development and Training center.
He announced
that the project that started in 2016 will come to an end on 31 June 2019 after
being a success and that the Foreign Affairs ministry of Estonia did a good job
in funding it.
He
calls on OSSCs to emphasize good customer care services noting that in
Tallin,Estonia,it is one of the best ways of providing services to the public.
Sepp
notes that about 2000 different services are provided to the people,while 573
other services are also provided via the internet (ICT) so that youth and the
elderly can easily receive them conveniently.
He
notes that taxes are completed online in
under 5 minutes,and that 99 percent of
the Estonia’s public services are available on the web 24 hours a day and
nearly one-third of citizens vote via the internet.
Asked
about renewal of the project so that other districts can also benefit,Mr Sepp
noted that the project will be terminated first before they think of the second
phase.However,he says it will depend on whether Estonia’s ministry of foreign
affairs agrees to continue funding the project.
He
revealed that Lira,Arua,Hoima and Rukungiri municipalities are also requesting
for one stop service centers.
Sarah
Lwanga,however noted that renewal of the project will depend on a memorandum of
understanding between the permanent secretaries from ministry of public
service,ICT and Estonian government and look at the lifespan of the project.
Lwanga
reveals that government will push for other projects as a reform and government
will also continue supporting and establishing other centers in a phased manner
so that services can reach its people.
Jana
Vital,a member of the Estonian Technical Committee for the operationalisation
of OSSCs in Uganda said “it takes a lot of team work,commitment,trust and a
supporting shoulder to move on together towards one come goal,which is not
competition but offering a service for ones’ country.”
She
urges staff at OSSCs to be the face of public service and asked them to handle
difficult customers with care and in a creative way so that they don’t go away.
Improve customer satisfaction by delivering services based on customer
needs,expectations and preferences.
The
Municipal Principal Commercial Officer,Kasese,Mr Godfrey Bwambale who is the
center team leader said they offer a comprehensive range of services at the
OSSC that include payroll management,distribution of payslips,payroll
updates,salary complaints,processing building plans,operation wealth
creation,URA,cooperatives/SACCO formation,Uganda registration services bureau
and NSSF services.
Mr Bwambale
says the service center partners with ministry of public service and Estonian
government that are handy in ensuring that the center provides services. He
notes that “it is a reform that aims at transferring service delivery in public
service through establishing of service Uganda centers as a response to the
current increased demand world over to
focus on government reforms on
citizen-centric delivery centers”.
He
also noted that the center had reduced time used in travel to FortPortal in
Kabarole district from 75KM or 3 hours to just a few minutes.
The
Kasese Municipal deputy mayor,Mr Peter Baluku who represented the mayor his
worship Godfrey Kabbyanga Baluku said nearness of the OSSC is helping public to
get timely service provision because all services are accessed under one roof.
While
closing the meeting,Mr Peter Baluku thanked ministry of public service for
selecting Kasese as a regional center and said “I was supposed to travel to
Fort Portal to get a TIN Number but got the service here in Kasese………..and it
is really helping many people.”
Peter
who encouraged staff at OSSCs to have good customer care,called on all centers
in the country to learn from each other so that they can improve where they
have challenges.
Several
representatives from other OSSCs gave their testimonies and all pointed out the
challenge of lack of funding,space,furniture and resources.
They
also pointed out that municipal departmental heads operate from OSSCs due to
lack of office space at Municipal level.
Mrs
Jane Akwero,the Human Resource Officer Gulu Municipal council and in charge
Gulu One stop service center says they are only four months old but there are
so far three desks at the center that handle customer care
issues,pension,payroll management and TIN registration and the lands desk.
Akwero
says the center has minimized complaints of delayed pension payments.
She
notes that municipality authorities have budgeted 8million shs for the center .
Samuel
Mali,the Principal Commercial Officer and of Mbale Municipality One Stop
Service Center,which is second best model center says the district is home to
about 10 University campuses whereby the students visit the center for academic
purposes.
Mr
Mali says the center also handles the contentious 1972 Departed Asians Property
case and hopes that it will soon be settled.
The
vision for service Uganda is accessible,efficient and affordable public
services while the Mission is to provide a comprehensive range of integrated
services.The One Stop-Service Center is a center
that provides integrated services
and information from government to people, as part of a comprehensive strategy
to ease stress and strain of accessing public and social services to better their lives.One
does not have to be referred elsewhere.
One
Stop-Service Center (OSSC) is one of the government's initiative aimed at
bringing effectiveness, efficiency,transparency and accountability in
governance.
Kasese
service center was early this year launched by the permanent secretaries from
ministry of public service and ICT.
Ends
