Issues of providing government services and anti-corruption measures were discussed in Almaty

Almaty. 26 August. Kazakhstan Today - Today, an interdepartmental field meeting on improving quality of the government services and anti-corruption measures was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan Today reports.

During preparation of the meeting, a number of entities providing the most popular services to the population in the spheres of migration, state revenues, public health services, public utilities, including Public Service Centers were inspected jointly with the public representatives.

One of the subject-matters discussed was the reasons for unpopularity of electronic services among the population, where the main factors are low computer literacy of the citizens, complexity of service obtaining procedure for understanding, lack of appropriate computers and programs.

For example, in Almaty, 70% of electronic government services have been provided through the self-service sector in the Public Service Centers. Among 121 services that have an electronic format, it is possible to receive only 10 via mobile phones. It is planned to introduce electronic services into mobile applications.

Also, at the meeting, the problems in the Public Service Centers were discussed. As of today, they include gathering of crowd in the long queues, lack of parking spaces for vehicles, presence of barriers for individuals with disabilities (lack of entrance ramps and elevators). In addition, in some institutions, there is only one bank that does not cope with the flow of visitors.

Aigul Baikhanova, Head of Almaty City Department of the Agency, offered to provide Public Utilities Services in Public Service Centers and introduce uniform standards for provision of services in this area. This is due to the fact that the citizens have to refer to various entities in different parts of the city several times to receive services in the areas of water, gas and electric power supply.

According to Alik Shpekbayev, Deputy Chairman of the Agency for Civil Service and Anti-Corruption Affairs, provision of quality public services has become one of the key indicators of effectiveness of the state machinery in general.

"Therefore, we have started a big and methodical effort to improve quality of the public services. This work is not of a one-time character, and it will be performed on a regular and systematic basis," Shpekbayev said.

In their turn, the public representatives expressed their opinion that there is a need to transfer the public services from central and local executive bodies to "Government for Citizens" Government Corporation, considering that this entity, which is created to implement the Plan of the Nation "100 specific steps", is designed to provide the population with quality and professional services.

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