Rwanda Governance Board has threatened to sanction public and private institutions which fail to provide good services to the public.

According to Prof Anastase Shyaka, the CEO of Rwanda Governance Board, service delivery in some institutions is still wanting which he said defeats the government goal of achieving customer satisfaction.

He was briefing journalists on the ongoing "Nk’uwikorera” campaign that aims at improving quality service delivery based on integrity, responsiveness and fairness.

The overall objective of the six-month campaign is to raise awareness of the service providers at all levels (both public and private) to provide effective and quality services to citizens at the same time encouraging the recipients to reject poor service.

Shyaka said quality service delivery should be a responsibility of every institution and individuals. EDPRS II targets 85 per cent citizens’ satisfaction by 2018.

Yet, service delivery remains behind all other governance indicators, according to the Rwanda Governance Scorecard 2016 – at 72.93 per cent

Furthermore, the recent Citizen Report Card shows that the level of satisfaction of citizens with services they receive at the local level is even lower, at 67.7 per cent, according to the same scorecard.

Shyaka said people need to change their attitudes and ways of thinking if service delivery to citizens is to improve.

He said that RGB is well aware that several public and private sector institutions have been doing poorly and that is what they want to change and it is the rational behind Nk’uwikorera programme. "If our advice and promotional efforts do not yield results we have the mandate to request for sanctions against those individuals and institutions that are continuously lagging in delivering quality services,” Shyaka warned.

He noted that the campaign which touches almost every sector, including public health and sanitation in public spaces, social protection programme, agriculture and governance is expected to bring about change. "We believe that the most precious resource is a citizen, their health, their time, so whatever the case, there is no justification for poor services whether you have a challenge with resources, attitude, corruption, there is no justification for poor services, that is the bottom line,” said Shyaka.

He acknowledged it was a challenge to meet 85 per cent citizens’ satisfaction by 2018, calling for unconventional approaches.

Some public service seekers say that even if service delivery is improving and the government keeps sensitising the people, there is need to do more.

"Service delivery is an issue in almost all the sectors and some providers think it is a favour they offer to us whenever we go to them, you can see that attitude in the health facilities and in other institutions, especially at the grassroots. It is unbelievable that even some private places where individuals do business, they do not care and still offer poor services to clients, some drastic measures need to be taken to stop this,” said Imacullée Uwamukiza, from Kimironko, Gasabo.

The service sector contributes 40 per cent to the national economy, according to official figures.

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