Poor Public Services Research Articles

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in Municipal Planning and Management: A Pathway to Improve South African Service Delivery

In the years after 1994, the democratic government of South Africa worked to transfer and extend basic service provision to practically all sections of the country. The delivery of public services continues to be an embarrassment to humanity and the developmental state. Without proper basic services such as water, sanitation, power, infrastructure, health facilities, and housing, a large section of South Africa’s people would continue to live and die. As a result, society remains disenfranchized and exposed to socioeconomic shocks, contributing to the economy's decline and destruction. To support successful service delivery, the integration of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) as a shift from human-led operations to computerized operations is now recognized and required in municipal planning and management. The central purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of applying GIS as a crucial planning tool infused within integrated development planning in municipal planning and management. The current state of service delivery in existing municipal planning and management procedures, as well as the factors that influence it and the effect it has on society, will be examined. This conceptual study employs secondary data and follows a certain methodology. Using the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology, secondary data were examined. The results demonstrate that political influence and manipulation, a lack of openness and accountability, insufficient citizen participation, a lack of personnel capability, and poor planning, monitoring, and evaluation contribute to poor public service delivery in South Africa. Furthermore, the findings indicate that GIS functions as a tool for visualization and collation of spatial information, map production, and data capturing and storage in local municipalities with the aim of enhancing public service delivery.

Strategi Komunikasi Humas Polres Musi Rawas Dalam Meningkatkan Citra Institusi Di Masyarakat

Public relation is a form of public service, if poor public service practices by state officials result in the communitys needs not being met, which ultimately does not bring about general welfare. Poor public services occur because of the bad intentions of state administrators to abuse their power and authority, therefore there is a need for a strategy in building the identity of the Musi Rawas Police. The communication strategy developed by Musi Rawas Police Public not only in obtaining a good image, but also in how the positive image that has been built can be maintained. The type of research used is a qualitative approach with the approach regarding public relation. Data collection techniques use observation methods, interview methods, and documentation. The implication of this research is that it is hoped that the public Relations Communications Strategy in building the image of institutions in society will be maximized, because it is necessary to create good relations between the police and the community.
 
 
 

Implementasi Kebijakan Pembangunan Zona Integritas Menuju Wilayah Bebas Korupsi dan Wilayah Birokrasi Bersih Melayani di Pengadilan Negeri Manokwari

Government bureaucracy plays a crucial role in supporting the national administrative system as it is responsible for performing public service functions, empowering communities, and contributing to national development. The bureaucracy in Indonesia currently faces several issues, such as administrative personnel not being entirely clean and accountable, administrative inefficiency, poor quality public services, and quantity falling short of expectations. The objective of this research is to identify and analyze the implementation of the policy on developing integrity zones towards corruption-free areas and clean-serving bureaucracies in the Manokwari District Court. This study utilizes a qualitative method with a descriptive approach. Data collection methods include observation, interviews, and documentation. Data analysis techniques involve data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The theory used in this research is Edward III's policy implementation model, consisting of four variables: communication, resources, disposition, and bureaucratic structure. The research findings indicate that the development of integrity zones has been implemented in the Manokwari District Court but has not yet received the predicates of a Clean and Serving Bureaucracy (WBK/WBBM). This is due to several obstacles, such as bureaucratic culture and mindset, insufficient human resources, budget limitations, and facilities. Based on these findings, it is recommended that all employees participate in the implementation of bureaucratic reform towards WBK/WBBM and integrity zones in the Manokwari District Court. This effort should be continually maximized, not only to obtain the WBK/WBBM predicates but also as a means to enhance services to justice seekers and eliminate corrupt behavior.

Fiscal Decentralization and Corruption: The Facts of Regional Autonomy Policies in Indonesia

Decentralization has posed new problems in Indonesian local governments, including disparities between regions, poor public services, fiscal indiscipline, and corruption cases. Before the implementation of regional autonomy, corruption cases were reported only in a few regions. A year after decentralization started, in 2002, more corruption cases were reported in more regions nationwide. The irony is that such decentralization, initiated to reduce corruption in the government, ended up with more corruption in the regions. This study investigates the relationship between fiscal decentralization—as proxied by capital expenditure and fiscal independence index—and the corruption index. This study also analyzes the macro factors and regional characteristics: inflation, civil servants’ salaries, education levels, and the differences in the corruption index at the regional level. The method used in this study is regression analysis by using panel data from longitudinal studies involving 15 cities in Indonesia in 2008, 2010, 2015, and 2017. The finding shows that the relationship of fiscal decentralization—expenditure, inflation rates, civil servants’ salaries, and local corruption—are not statistically significant to the corruption index. By contrast, the relationship between the fiscal independence index and educational level are statistically significant. The implementation of fiscal decentralization on expenditure increases corruption risks due to ineffective budget management, individual corrupt tendencies, and weak supervision system. Meanwhile, fair allocation of local income can increase public trust and prosperity and lower corruption risks.

Sustainable transport modes, travel satisfaction, and emotions: Evidence from car-dependent compact cities

This study investigates how the use of sustainable transport modes relates to travel satisfaction (general evaluation of travel) and travel affect (emotions during travel) in car-dependent compact cities. Thereby, the study provides evidence on sustainable mobility and travel-related well-being in a context of compact urban form but inadequate provisions for public transport, walking, and cycling. A mixed-methods approach was applied comprising quantitative and qualitative analyses of data from the two major cities of Greece, i.e., Athens and Thessaloniki. Travel satisfaction and travel affect are found to be highest for those who walk for commuting, independently of travel time and other factors. Conversely, travel satisfaction and travel affect are lowest for public transport users, largely due to very long travel times but also poor public transport services in one of the two cities. Results indicate that the experience of traveling by public transport, car, and motorcycle within urban areas greatly depends on transport provision and policies. Overall, findings support the idea that to shift to pleasant, satisfying, and sustainable mobility in car-dependent compact cities, car restrictions should be accompanied by massive improvements in public transport, high-quality walking and cycling infrastructure, and an integrated coordination of different modes.

A Review of the Promotion of Sustainable Mobility of Workers by Industries

The evolution and growth of cities present considerable challenges to the promotion of sustainable mobility, namely in commuting trips. In the present and recent past, many industries and companies of the economy’s productive sector have had to move as far as possible from urban areas, to minimize the impact of their activities on people’s health and quality of life. In more dispersed and low-density territories, working and residential areas are very far from each other, and there is typically poor public transport service and a lack of cycling networks for commuting purposes. This scenario encourages the use of private automobiles, not only as a necessity but also often as an obligation, making the mobility system nearly unsustainable. Therefore, it has become clear that companies can play an important role in promoting more sustainable mobility by reducing car use on commuting trips and by offering employees clean and more efficient transport alternatives to promote workers’ well-being and quality of life. Through an extensive literature review, a selection of scientific articles in the last 13 years was analyzed and discussed. The results highlighted that the location of industrial areas, the supply of public transport, the usage of active modes, and shared mobility systems are key factors to reduce car usage in workers’ commuting trips. Therefore, any sustainable mobility strategies that companies adopt will minimize the respective negative externalities, helping promote more environment-friendly ways of transportation, accessibility, social equity, and inclusion in workers’ communities. This justifies the need and urgency for the development of specific sustainable mobility plans oriented for companies/industries, instead of addressing this as just another element of a conventional urban mobility plan. Since this mobility represents a high volume of trips, repeated according to very regular patterns, it must be sustainability-oriented, allowing the improvement of system, trip, and vehicle efficiency.

Analisis Kualitas Pelayanan Instalasi Gawat Darurat (IGD) dan Rawat Inap (Kelas III) di Rumah Sakit Umum Daerah (RSUD) Dr. Tengku Mansyur Kota Tanjungbalai

This research is motivated by the quality of public services that have not been implemented properly, causing poor public service delivery which is a necessity for the government to make improvements in public services, one of which is the number of facilities that must be renovated and the lack of human resources at the Regional General Hospital (RSUD). Dr. Tengku Mansyur Tanjung City Hall. The purpose of this study is to determine the quality of services for the Emergency Room (IGD) and Inpatient Care (Class III) at the Regional General Hospital (RSUD) Dr. Tengku Mansyur Tanjungbalai City and to find out what factors are inhibiting the Emergency Installation (IGD) and Inpatient (Class III) Services at the Regional General Hospital (RSUD) Dr. Tengku Mansyur Tanjungbalai City. The research method uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive type. The results of this study indicate that based on PERMENPAN No. 19 of 2021 has gone well, this is because the five points in PERMENPAN such as types of services, service procedures, turnaround times, service fees and facilities and infrastructure have gone well. Then not only that there are inhibiting factors such as the need for additional human resources (HR) and improvement of hospital facilities that have not been maximized at the Regional General Hospital (RSUD) Dr. Tengku Mansyur Tanjungbalai City.

Citizen Compensation for Poor Public Service Delivery: A Civil Rights Perspective

Citizen Compensation for Poor Public Service Delivery: A Civil Rights Perspective

Ethical Leadership and Employee Performance in the Public Sector: The Mediating Effects of Motivation and Satisfaction

This study examined the influence of ethical leadership on employee performance in the public sector, using employee motivation and employee satisfaction as mediators. This study is motivated by the need to examine the influence of ethical behavior of leaders in the public sectors in a developing country often marred with corruption allegations and poor public service delivery. This study is designed quantitatively, and data was collected through a structured questionnaire distributed among federal civil servants across five Ministries in Nigeria. A conceptual model was designed based on seven hypotheses and tested using PLS-SEM technique. Findings revealed that all hypotheses were significant based on p<0.001. More importantly, ethical leadership positively and significantly influence employee motivation and satisfaction. Also, employee motivation and satisfaction mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and employee performance. These findings suggest the importance of leaders’ moral behavior and their relationship with subordinates in the workplace, through motivating them to work, as well as imbibing the workplace ethics and culture. Practically, the findings imply that promoting workplace ethics becomes a crucial ingredient in stimulating individual performance, which translates to overall organizational performance and better service delivery to the citizens.

Efektivitas Layanan Aduan Lapor Bupati Berbasis E-Government di Kabupaten Pekalongan

The public service sector is a reflection of the governance of a government. Poor public service delivery will certainly disrupt the stability of government administration because it will affect the level of public trust in the government. The Pekalongan Regency Government created an e-government-based public complaint service system called the Regent's Report, as an effort to improve public services. This study aims to evaluate the implementation of the Regent's Report complaint system in Pekalongan Regency and to find out the factors that influence the implementation of the Regent's Report complaint system in Pekalongan Regency. This research is a qualitative descriptive study. The results of this study indicate that the Evaluation of the Regent's Report complaint system was carried out by reviewing William Dunn's evaluation theory, among others; effectiveness, efficiency, adequacy, alignment, responsiveness, and accuracy. The Pekalongan Regency Government should increase the leveling and responsiveness points because it was found that the majority of the people did not know about the Regent's Report complaint system. The factors that influence the implementation of the district head's report complaint system consist of supporting factors, namely e-government-based systems and adequate infrastructure, and inhibiting factors, namely budget, human resources and implementation standard guidelines.

The implication of ‘Smart Village’ in Nepal: Sustainable rural development perspective

The main objective of the study is to discuss the importance of ‘smart villages’ in Nepal considering it would enhance rural and local development. The analytical review literature of both theoretical and empirical data and documents and observation as methods are adopted for the study. The majority of the population in Nepal resides in rural areas. Similarly, rural-urban migration is common. There is a wide gap between rural and urban in terms of infrastructure development and poverty. The rural population stands for 27 % of poverty, which is higher than the urban (15%). Many parts of the local levels face a lack of infrastructure, poor public services, and technologies. The exodus of youth from villages has resulted in decreasing agriculture production. Considering topography, population, limitation of land, and migration trends; the concept of smart villages is rational and it will have evident implications for rural development. The concept of smart villages will sustainably enhance the rural economy, minimizing the rural-urban economies gap.

The Role of Bureaucracy on the Effectiveness of Public Services

Poor public services in Indonesia are not new. Many facts on the ground show the low level of public service delivery, such as the number of discrimination services, the absence of certainty of the cost and time of service, and the low level of public satisfaction with public services. Optimizing public services carried out by the government bureaucracy is not easy, and considering the renewal of various aspects entrenched in the circle of government bureaucracy in Indonesia. Among some of these aspects is the culture of bureaucracy that is not conducive that has long colored the mindset of bureaucrats since the colonial era. The procedures and ethics of service developed in the bureaucracy in Indonesia are very far from the values and practices that value the nation's citizens as sovereign citizens.

SERVICOM and Public Service Delivery in Nigeria: A study of Akwa Ibom State University

The quality, efficiency and impact of public service delivery remains an issue of grave concern in Nigeria as the Nation is known for its endemic poor public service delivery and productivity. To tackle this vice, its former President, Olusegun Obasanjo in March 2004, using its administrative powers ordered the establishment of SERVICOM Units in all Federal government ministries, departments and parastatals. This would later extend to the National Universities Commission and all Federal and State Universities in Nigeria. A synthesis of the SERVICOM charter shows that its central focus is on enhancing quality and measurable service delivery. The literature review and the theoretical framework grounded on Douglas McGregor’s famous Theory X and Y revealed that a third party inspector such as SERVICOM is a necessity in the public service delivery chain to ensure public services are delivered in a quantitative, qualitative, customer centric, affordable, accessible and predictable manner. Using a survey research and ANOVA, the researchers found that 93.80% of the respondents have not received the necessary awareness on the services of SERVICOM while 88.08% confirm that SERVICOM has not been monitoring their services. The study concludes that the inability to provide the needed awareness and monitoring had a significant negative effect on staff service delivery. It then made useful recommendations such as immediate commencement of a structured awareness programmes, monitoring and alignment with its sister unit in the institution towards the realization of the SERVICOM mandate.

A clean audit and service delivery comparative study of two municipalities in Mpumalanga province in South Africa

In recent years, most South African (SA) municipalities still need to produce clean audits. In 2018 and 2019, most municipalities in SA needed better-quality financial statements and performance reports. Misrepresentation of financial statements in audit reports is linked to inadequate governance, misappropriation of public funds and poor public service delivery. It is upon this background that this study aimed to: (i) assess perceptions of municipality middle management employees on factors affecting auditing, (ii) evaluate the differences in perceptions among municipality middle management employees on factors affecting auditing, (iii) measure the effect of factors affecting auditing on overall clean audit and (iv) establish the effect of clean audit on service delivery at two municipalities in Mpumalanga province. Using a structured questionnaire, a quantitative descriptive approach methodology was employed to collect data from a minimum sample of 294 employees in the middle management category working within the accounting and finance department at two municipalities in Mpumalanga province, SA. SPSS v28 was used to conduct descriptive and multivariate analyses, including mean, analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation, and regression analysis. Results indicated that employees from the clean audit municipality had positive perceptions of factors affecting clean audit, while employees from the municipality with an unclean audit had negative perceptions. It was also concluded that factors affecting auditing had a statistically significant positive effect on clean audits. The findings in this study led to significant implications for theory and practice.

EFEKTIVITAS ADMINISTRASI PELAYANAN PUBLIK DI KANTOR KELURAHAN TANJUNG SELOR TIMUR KECAMATAN TANJUNG SELOR KABUPATEN BULUNGAN

The services provided by the government have received a sharp scrutiny from the people themselves. Service is the main goal to create the best service for the whole community. Poor public services are not new, the problem is that public services are not yet optimal, the services are not yet effective, which results in excellent service not being realized. This made the researchers interested in conducting research with the aim of research to find out and describe the administration of public services in the East Tanjung Selor Village office, Tanjung Selor District, Bulungan Regency. This research method uses a qualitative descriptive research method. The data sources used are primary data, namely informants and secondary data including book references, previous research, government regulations related to public service administration. Data collection techniques were carried out through observation, interviews and documentation. The research focus is based on PERMENPANRB Number 15 of 2014. Data analysis uses four components, namely data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. Based on the data analysis carried out, it was concluded that the public services carried out by the Tanjung Selor Timur sub-district were quite effective by providing services according to the SOP (Service Operational Standards) carried out to the community even though there was still a lack of human resources in providing services but the community was quite satisfied with the service. received from the municipality

Democratization in the post-colonial era: shortcomings

During colonialism, African countries were exposed to severe living circumstances and human rights abuses. African nations earned their independence and transitioned to democracy in the post-colonial period. Democracy was touted as a method of creating security, stability, and wealth in African countries, as well as demonstrating Africa's independence. The transition to democratic states was viewed as a necessary step for African countries in order to meet the needs of citizens who had previously been enslaved and whose rights had been violated by colonizers. This article examines the current position of democracy in African States post colonialization. This article argues that African leaders have failed to deliver on their promises of democracy, as evidenced by the fact that African countries are characterized by political instability, corruption, poverty, poor public service delivery, inequality, and low economic growth. Only the political elites in Africa have reaped the benefits of democracy, while the rest of the population has fared less favorably. The authors contend that the process of democratization has not afforded democratic African states the opportunity to acquire solutions. The authors acknowledge the progress, made by democratic states; nevertheless, in spite of this progress, a greater number of Africans continue to live below the poverty line. Those who are elected to positions of power have the appearance of being there to serve the people, but in reality, they only serve themselves and their own interests.

Where Are Potential Areas for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)—Exploring the Demands for Built Environment for TOD Planning

Sustainable urban growth advocates the implementation of transit-oriented development (TOD) to optimize urban spatial structure. The bilateral planning concept of TOD emphasizes the importance of discovering areas with existing TOD features but poor public transit service (potential TOD areas) and further introducing transit connectivity or conducting TOD policy in such areas to facilitate sustainable transportation. However, current studies that are devoted to discovering potential TOD areas remain scarce. In this study, we find that random forest (RF) is an optimal algorithm that can effectively identify potential TOD regions in Hong Kong. We propose an RF-mediated machine learning model (RF-TPI model) and reveal underlying mechanisms of specific indicators. After iteratively learning the typical features of TOD areas in Hong Kong, the developed RF-TPI model shows great capacity to identify potential TOD areas, with satisfactory model performances (accuracy score: 0.89, precision score: 0.81). Further investigation on manifestations of indicators by the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) interpreter demonstrates the intricate, significant nonlinear and threshold effects of distinct indicators. Conclusively, we highlight that random forest would be a prospective tool for identifying potential TOD areas to aid TOD strategy in urban sustainable endeavors.

ASSESSMENT OF AIR POLLUTION IN KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ

Air pollution is an increasing environmental problem worldwide. People from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) constantly complain of poor air quality in the region. Many studies have investigated particular aspects of air pollution in the KRI, the issue, however, has never been comprehensively discussed. This study, unlike its precedents, collects all the documents, researcharticles, and ground facts available concerning air pollution, and aims to thoroughly understand all dimensions of the issue and classifies its significant factors and sources. The result revealed that, compared to 40 years ago, current air quality in the KRI, specifically in the two largest cities of Erbil and Sulaimani, has deteriorated. The root causes were found to be political instability and wars in the region, a sharp increase in population, and poor public services. Similar to many other cities in the developing countries, sources such as transportation have contributed to the pollution. In addition, other significant sources such as dust storms, large and private power generators as well as household kerosene heaters which might not be present in other countries were found contributing in escalation of the pollution. It is concluded that air pollution in the KRI is the outcome of a variety of causes and sources some of which may not be common in other parts of the world.

The perceived social rejection of sexual minorities: Substance use and unprotected sexual intercourse.

This study presents associations between the perceived social rejection of sexual minorities and tobacco, alcohol and cannabis consumption and unprotected sexual intercourse in the capital of Greece, Athens. This is the first Greek study to evaluate the concept of the minority stress theory on sexual minorities' substance use and unprotected sexual intercourse. In addition, this is among the first international studies to examine whether periods of adverse economic conditions are associated with sexual minorities' substance use and unprotected sexual intercourse. Two-panel datasets covering the periods 2013-2014 and 2018-2019 were used to determine the perceived social rejection, that is, whether sexual minorities have been rejected by friends, treated unfairly in educational and/or workplace environments, treated negatively in social situations and received poor health and public services due to their sexuality. The estimates indicate that perceived social rejection is associated with the increased consumption of tobacco (by 9.1%, P < 0.01), alcohol (by 7.1%, P < 0.01) and cannabis (by 12.5%, P < 0.01), as well as unprotected sexual intercourse (by 6.5%, P < 0.01). In the first three cases, the magnitude of the associations is stronger for men than women and there is increased cannabis consumption during periods of deteriorated economic conditions (by 5.5%, P < 0.01). In the European Union, reducing stigma, substance use, risky sexual behaviours and health inequalities for sexual minorities is a goal of public health. If minority stress is correlated with substance use and risky sexual behaviours leading to detrimental physical/mental health outcomes then prevention and support interventions should be designed.

Dampak Tanggung Jawab Sosial Perusahaan untuk Pengentasan Kemiskinan dan Penyediaan Layanan Umum: Studi Kasus Kabupaten Sukabumi, Indonesia

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) phenomena in developing countries are different from that of developed countries in terms of governments’ intermediary roles in the delivery mechanisms of CSR activities, especially for overcoming poverty and poor public services. By extracting Polanyi’s general principles of behavior regarding resource allocation, the distinctive CSR phenomenon in developing countries could be explained by the concept of quasi-redistribution. Considering the common character of quasi-redistribution due to its weak government system, the intermediary roles of the governments in Indonesia are noticeable due to the issuance of regulations at national and local governmental levels directing companies’ CSR activities to address poverty and poor basic public service issues. In the case of Sukabumi Regency, where the poverty and poor basic public services are the main issues, the actual role of local government in promoting company contributions to address these issues through CSR activities to alleviate poverty and provide public services is indeed increasing and developing. This paper illuminates how the intermediary roles of governments exist in CSR activities so that they alleviate poverty and provide basic public services.