The team to develop an e-tool to evaluate public services was awarded

The demo version has been developed for two weeks, involving five IT teams, who had the task to come up with comprehensive technical solution for automatized, real-time collection and processing of citizens’ feedback on the quality of the public services they benefit of. Initially the instrument will be tested in 7 territorial offices of the National Chamber of Social Insurance and then will be used by other institutions.

The activity was coordinated by the Moldova Social Innovations Lab (MiLab) – a joint project of UNDP Moldova and the State Chancellery – in partnership with the National Association of ICT Companies (AICT) and the National Chamber of Social Insurance (NCSI).

“We paid attention to visual accessibility, when we developed the application for tablets and for the web page" says Valentin Bragaru, one of the winning team’s members: "The graphic design is simple, colorful and includes large images, so that any person would spend no more than five minutes to evaluate how he or she was served", added Valentin Bragaru.

As simple as possible for the users was the main criteria based on which the judges took the decision. "Given the fact that one of the target groups are retired persons, the winning team has proposed tangible solutions, accessible in use and, most importantly, feasible in terms of resources. For instance, tablets that will be installed in NCSI offices are easier to use by the elderly than mobile phones or webpages", says Ana Chirita, executive director of AICT.

Therefore, from November 2017, citizens will be able to express their opinion upon the quality of the services provided by NCSI right next to the window they had been served. Depending on the accessibility of the information received, the staff amiability and the conditions of service, people will put marks for the received services through the devices installed for the piloting period within 7 territorial offices, or by filling in an on-line questionnaire on the official webpage of the institution.

The evaluation tool of public services was developed on the basis of an extensive research carried out in seven NCSI territorial offices in Chisinau, Ialoveni, Cahul, Balti and Comrat. The research team used different methodologies to achieve deep and nuanced understandings on various aspects of user experience, and focused on respondents’ attitudes, behaviors, and challenges with regards to providing feedback (for target users) and integrating it into public policies and programs (for government respondents).

“This tool is created for and with people and it is developed within the context of the National Strategy for Public Administration Reform for 2016 – 2020. Thanks to the technical solutions provided by the winning team, the citizens will be able to speak up, without any intermediaries, and be head by the public institutions, which will be responsible for taking the necessary measures to apply citizens' suggestions", says Valentin Guznac, Deputy General Secretary of the Government of the Republic of Moldova.

According to NCSI representatives, the data collected through the IT instruments will be analyzed and integrated within operational procedures of the territorial offices. This will allow NCSI authorities to objectively evaluate the staff performance, to improve the infrastructure, to simplify the documentation process etc.