Citizen’s Charter: Its Effectiveness Towards Attaining Good Governance”

A Case Study of DENR, R9-Regional Office

Cherry Ann P. Arsenal

Master’s in Public Administration, Open University System-DENR

Abstract

Historically, Filipino citizens had experienced difficulties in getting effective, inclusive &
accountable service from the government. The long waiting times and complex procedures
sought illegal & corrupt ways to speed up the processing of documents. And in return, the
government was unable to collect enough revenue for the provision of its services while citizens
became increasingly disappointed with the amount of red tape they encountered. In 2008, the
Civil Service Commission (CSC) launched the Citizen’s Charter Program as the flagship
initiative to implement ARTA. The citizen charter was a document that communicates, in simple
terms, information on the services provided by the government to its citizens. It describes the
step-by-step procedure for availing of a particular service and the guaranteed performance level
that they may expect for that service. These documents had to include the fees, the maximum
waiting time, and the officer responsible for each step of the process. Further, it is a written,
voluntary declaration by service providers about their service standards, choice, accessibility,
non-discrimination, transparency, and accountability. It should be in accord with the
expectations of the citizen. Therefore, it is a useful way of defining with the stakeholders what
service should be and what standards to expect. The Citizen's Charter is currently adopted by
the Regional Office of Department of Environment & Natural Resources, Region 9. This paper
aims to consider the potential benefits of Citizens Charter to the customers in the Regional
Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Region 9. This study will
assess/evaluate the effectiveness of the Citizen’s Charter initiative towards attaining good
governance. The study will specifically focus on investigating if it is a client-responsive
environment for service delivery; if it decreases opportunities for corruption and graft by
increasing transparency and educating citizens about their rights, and if it increases government
revenues by ensuring that the money citizens pay for services goes into the government’s
coffer. This study was carried out at the DENR-R9, Regional Office and the target population is
80 customers who are coming to the office for a purpose. Questionnaires and observations will
be used as tools for data collection. Quantitative and qualitative analyses will follow. Keywords:
Citizen’s Charter, Customer, and Good Governance.