Vatandaş Sözleşmeleri: Farklı Ülkelerdeki Uygulamalar ve Genel Değerlendirme

VatandaşSözleşmeleri kamu kurumlarının hizmet standartları, bilgi, şikayet, nezaket, seçim ve danışma, erişebilirlik, ayırım yapmama, kamu parasına değer verme bağlamında vatandaşlara/müşterilere yönelik sistematik çabalarınıtemsil eden belgelerdir. VatandaşSözleşmeleri kamu yönetimi reformlarının bir unsuru olarak, daha şeffaf ve hesap verebilir bir kamu hizmeti oluşturmak ve vatandaşların devlete olan güvenini yeniden tesis etmek amacıyla farklıyönetim gelenek ve yapılarına sahip pek çok ülkede uygulama alanıbuldu. Farklıülkelerdeki VatandaşSözleşmesi uygulamalarıbenzerlikler kadar farklılıklar da içermekte, bu anlamda gönüllü politika transferi düşüncesi çerçevesinde değerlendirilmektedir. Bu çalışma farklıyönetim geleneklerine sahip İngiltere, İspanya, Fransa, Avustralya ve Hindistan’daki VatandaşSözleşmeleri uygulamalarınıele almakta, VatandaşSözleşmelerine yönelik ideolojik tartışmalarıve uygulamadaki sorunlarıgenel olarak değerlendirmektedir. VatandaşSözleşmeleri daha şeffaf, hesap verebilir ve ektin bir kamu hizmetlerinin oluşmasına katkıda bulunmakta, kamu yöneticilerine önemli öğrenme fırsatlarısunmaktadır. Diğer taraftan, en iyi şekilde uygulansa bile VatandaşSözleşmelerinin kamu hizmetlerinde etkinliği ve adaleti sağlama kapasitesi sınırlıdır. Kamu hizmetlerinin bir hak olarak, tüm vatandaşların erişebileceği bir nitelikte sağlanabilmesi için yönetimlerin VatandaşSözleşmesinin ötesinde politikalar geliştirmesi gerekmektedir.

More than thirty years, many countries adopted comprehensive public sector reforms which caused important changes in the relationship between national, regional and local administrations, the service of public services, the principles of financial administration, the design of public policies. The reforms also regulated the relationship between state and citizens. In that context, the Citizen’s Charter Programs are adopted by some counties in order to restructure the relationship between the citizens and administration as part of public sector reforms. Citizen’s Charter Programs are adopted by many countries with different administrative traditions and structures in order to create more transparent and accountable public services and restore citizen’s trust on the state. Citizen’s Charter is a document which represents systematic efforts of public organizations towards citizens/clients in terms of standard of services, information, choice and consultation, non-discrimination and accessibility, grievances, redress, courtesy and value for money. The beginning point of the Citizen’s Charter Programs is the standardization the public services. In that sense, Citizen’s Charters are the documents that represent the service standards promised to the citizens. In essence, they can be accepted as a kind of quality assurance system that includes customer satisfaction. The Citizen’s Charter Programs contain a group quality insurance technique including setting service standards, consultative mechanisms, providing information to citizens and clients, complaints and redress mechanisms, and quality awards. The Citizen’s Charters are not programs that have some universal and stick rules and purposes. Rather, every country designed and implemented the Citizen’s Charter Programs in accordance with their administrative, social, political traditions and structures. There are similarities as well as differences among Citizen’s Charter Programs in terms of content, purpose and implementation methodology. Therefore, they could be explained through idea of voluntary policy transfer. This study examines Citizen’s Charter implementation in some countries, namely United States, France, Spain, Australia and India. United Kingdom is the first country which adopted Citizen’s Charter Program in 1991. The main idea for the implementation is to establish the quality standard for the public services and to evaluate and increase performance of the public services based on these standards. The Citizen’s Charter Program is established as ten years program. The general framework of the Citizen’s Charter is based on six principles: setting standards, information and openness, choice and consultation, courtesy and helpfulness, putting things right, and value for money. A Charter Mark award scheme was introduced in 1992 to promote Citizen’s Charter Program. The main charters are controlled by the National Audit Office and the Audit Commission. Later, the Citizen’s Charter Program is supported by Tony Blair Government. On the other hand, content of the program is changed in accordance with by New Left ideology. Therefore, Citizen’s Charter initiative became known as “Service First.” as part of broader Better Government programme. In Spain, ‘citizen first’ was adopted in Spanish central government in 1999 by a Royal Decree, which establishes and links Service charters, prizes to best practices and quality awards. Unlike United Kingdom, the Citizen’s Charters are adopted on voluntary base. They are initiated by the politicians or managers of the area or department which is delivering the service or, sometimes, by quality departments where they exist. Service charters are structured in three parts: general and legal information, quality commitments, and other information which includes procedures about complaint mechanisms. There is widespread usage of Citizen’s Charter in Spain at national, regional and local level. In France, the Citizen’s Charter Program Charte des Services Publics is initiated as part of modernization public administration in 1992. The Charter is based on four public sector principles; transparency and responsibility, simplicity and accessibility, participation and adaptation, confidence and trust in secure public services and judicial protection of rights. While the French version of Citizen’s Charter is inspired by the United Kingdom practices, it has important differences due to French legal system, public service and state tradition. Unlike United Kingdom, the implementation of Citizen’s Charter in France is a matter for the judicial system rather than the executive regulation. In France, the Citizen’s Charter program aims to restore the Republican principle of equal citizenship, legality and due process. The Australian Citizen’s Charter Program is initiated under the title of Putting Service First. The Public Agencies dealing directly with the public are required to identify their ‘customers’ and develop a Service Charter. Charters are intended to guarantee standards for service delivery for customers and stakeholders, and provide a substitute for competition and a benchmark for measuring service quality. The principles of the charter are similar to the UK initiatives. In 1997, the Indian Government adopted an ‘Action Plan for Effective and Responsive Government’, and one of the outcomes of Action Plan was the decision that the public agencies at both the federal and state levels should develop and adopt their own Citizen’s Charters. In India, the formulation, implementation and evaluation of the Citizen’s Charter seem to be structured quite systematically in terms of its development at various stages as well as the main stakeholders involved at each stage. Primarily an adaptation of the UK model, the Indian Citizen’s Charter has an additional component of ‘expectations from the clients’ or, in other words ’obligations of the users’. The involvement of consumer organizations, citizen groups and other stakeholders in the formulation of the citizen’s charters is emphasized to ensure that they meet the needs of the users. Another unique aspect of the Indian initiative is that the banking sector is used as a model of excellence in the implementation of the Citizen’s Charter. Citizen’s Charter programs contribute to establish more transparent, accountable and effective public services and provide valuable learning opportunities for public administrators. On the other hand, Citizen’s Charter programs have limited capacity in providing effectiveness and justice in public services even if it would be adopted in best manner. Therefore, the public administrators should develop policies so that the public services should be accessible to all citizens as a right.