Redressal System Research Articles

Reinforcing accountability in public services: an ICT enabled framework

PurposeAlthough accountability has been one of the founding pillars of public services, many countries face situations of lack of accountability of service providers. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for accountability in public services by strengthening traditional accountability relationships among citizens, political authority and service provider, with the use of information and communication technology (ICT).Design/methodology/approachThe research analyses a case of public grievance redressal system in India that is entirely facilitated by ICT. It documents the key processes followed by the system and also examines the performance of the system using quantitative data.FindingsThe research identifies key technical and business characteristics of ICT applications that are intended to improve accountability. The traditional accountability relationship is then placed within an ICT framework to suggest how accountability can be reinforced in public services.Research limitations/implicationsThe framework is based on analysis of single case and therefore cannot be claimed to be comprehensive.Practical implicationsThe framework provides an analytical tool for e‐Government practitioners to design ICT interventions for accountability.Originality/valueMany mechanisms of enforcing accountability have been tried out by developing countries in the past but with little sustainable success. This paper proposes a different method of addressing the problem of poor accountability in public services by highlighting the role of ICT.

Research on Redress System of Vibration Table in Multi-Parameter Combined Environment Test System

The coupling between vibration and centrifugal field is quite strong in multi-parameter combined environment test system. The motion part of vibration table deviates from its original operation position by the action of centrifugal force, which ends in the stuck of armature and causes damage to vibration table. In order to solve such problem, an air-push-type armature redress system with displacement feedback was proposed, which provided a recovering force to counteract the centrifugal force and pushed the motion component to its designed operation position. Some improvements were also made to enhance its reliability. The result of simulation and test about the armature redress system demonstrates that the system has an excellent performance and meets the requirement of counteracting the centrifugal force, which guarantees that the vibration table could work in centrifugal field and multi-parameter combined environment.

Multi-level Policy Approach in the Governance of Labour Migration: Considerations From the Philippine Experience

Abstract With 40 years of experience in labour migration, the Philippines has designed a comprehensive approach for its governance that other countries of origin in Asia look up to. The objectives of the migration policy consist in facilitating the employment of Filipino workers abroad and the consequent economic benefits, while ensuring safe and decent conditions for the workers, through a variety of measures, including regulating the recruitment industry, training migrants through specific programmes, supervising the terms and conditions in the labour contract, and making available a system of redress for victimised migrants. These objectives are reached through the national migration policy. However, the national policy has inherent limitations, both in terms of design, implementation and reach, as the outreach of the Philippine government while migrants are abroad is limited to diplomatic and other services. For this reason, the Philippines has engaged both in bilateral and multilateral cooperation. This paper, after presenting the development of migration from the Philippines at the three policy levels, will briefly assess the efficacy of such policies, using indicators, such as growth of migration flows and coverage, to conclude that all three levels must be pursued, with some preference for the bilateral approach within a multilateral framework.

The contribution of community gardens to food security in the Maphephetheni uplands

Although community gardens are widely promoted, very little empirical evidence exists of their contribution to food security. This study evaluated the contribution of community gardens to alleviating food insecurity for 53 community gardeners in Maphephetheni, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale, it was found that 89% of these households were anxious about food supplies, consumed insufficient food and were severely food insecure. In addition, 72% consumed poor quality food. Community gardens were unable to solve the problem of food insecurity, but their contribution to consumption cannot be entirely ignored. Improved productivity and appropriate agricultural and nutritional advice are necessary. Land availability needs to be addressed through community and other redress systems to grant communities access to less marginal and more accessible productive land close to water. Programmes to support non-farm income are needed and could provide incentives for increased production.

E-Government Tools, Claimed Potentials/Unnamed Limitations

Contemporary cities are characterized by the inequality reflected in uneven geographies of quality-of-life conditions. When these inequalities are a matter of concern, local governments usually assert their intention to respond to citizen’s needs and deprivations. It is in this context that information and communication technology (ICT) tools are being incorporated in Indian cities to promote local governance by improving quality of life and increasing efficiency and transparency in the response to citizen’s demands and needs. Depending on the institutional environment and how information is created, processed and disseminated, these ‘e-government’ tools can exacerbate existing exclusionary practices. The objectives of this article are twofold. First, we want to explore how a local e-grievance redressal system reflects self-expressed needs. Second, we want to investigate whether there is a (mis)match between self-expressed needs and deprived areas. This helps to answer the question how these systems capture the requirements of the most deprived. The main methods used are geocoding and spatial visualization of the processed information. Results show that the self-expressed needs do not necessarily concentrate in the most deprived areas. This suggests that the e-grievances redressal system does not guarantee a narrowing of the gap between the different sections of the city, nor does it necessarily capture the requirements of those in the most need.

Factors associated with health service satisfaction among people living with HIV/AIDS: a cross sectional study at ART center in Chandigarh, India

People living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) while availing anti-retroviral therapy (ART) services face administrative and procedural problems in hospitals which affect their level of satisfaction with service providers. There is very little information available regarding quality of services provided at ART centers in India. Hence this study was conducted between July 2007 and December 2008 at ART Center, Chandigarh to analyse the user's perception about quality of services provided and factors associated with satisfaction level. For this prospective cross-sectional study, 100 PLHA were randomly recruited at ART Center. Exit interviews were conducted with structured questionnaire containing four groups of questions and questions on waiting time and satisfaction level. A scoring system was devised. The satisfaction level was cross matched with group questions. Mean age of 100 PLHA was 36.46 years (SD = 8.46), 22% were females, 55% from rural background and 67% educated above primary level. The mean group scores of four groups of questions were: Information, access and guidance (58.8%), Interaction with service providers (92.96%), Physical facilities (70.85%), Confidentiality, discrimination and grievance redressal (70.31%). Eighty-eight per cent rated satisfaction level as satisfactory or above (30% very satisfactory, 58% satisfactory), 10% indifferent and 2% dissatisfied. Factors found to be associated with satisfaction level were patient provider interaction (p=0.002) [behaviour of staff (p=0.005)], physical facilities (p=0.005) [cleanliness (0.002), drinking water (0.006)], confidentiality (p=0.004), waiting time to meet the doctor (p=0.03) and total time spent in hospital (p < 0.001). Problem areas identified were low availability of signage, low awareness of grievance redressal system, sanitation/toilets, drinking water, waiting time to meet the doctor (mean = 53.3 minutes), and “total time spent in hospital” (mean = 143 minutes). Study provided user's perspective about quality of ART services provided in a tertiary care hospital of India and revealed the factors associated with PLHA satisfaction level. Better quality ART Services can be provided to PLHA by addressing these factors.

Liability Issues of Volunteer Driving Programs

There is a lack of transportation options suitable for seniors who can no longer drive, particularly for those too frail to use public transportation. The development and the operation of volunteer driving programs for seniors has been one approach to solve this problem. However, these programs encounter various operational challenges, including protecting the safety of riders and drivers, managing liability, and properly insuring the programs. On the basis of case study research, this paper proposes ideas for enhancing risk management by balancing the scales of liability, obtaining needed insurance, adopting suggested volunteer driver procedures, and using contracts, legislative remedies at the state and federal levels, and a charitable redress system.

Complaints Handling in the UK Insolvency Practitioner Profession

Since the mid-1980s it has been a requirement of UK law that any person who acts as a bankruptcy trustee or as a liquidator of an insolvent corporation must be a licensed insolvency practitioner. In 2007 there were around 1,700 practitioners licensed to practice by eight different regulators. Complaints about the conduct of insolvency practitioners may arise in a wide variety of contexts. Moreover, as insolvency processes affect a range of stakeholders, including debtors, creditors and the wider public, complaints may derive from several possible sources. In recent years, public concern has been expressed about issues such as the level of practitioner remuneration, pre-packaged asset sales, retail insolvencies and the provision of appropriate advice to consumer debtors. In the light of these concerns, and given also the increasing volume of individual insolvencies in the UK driven by consumer debt, there is every reason to suppose that complaints against insolvency practitioners (whether well-founded or not) will continue to rise. This study, which was commissioned and funded by the UK Insolvency Practices Council, is the first to consider how complaints about insolvency practitioners are handled both within insolvency practitioner firms and by the various regulators. Drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews with insolvency practitioners, senior compliance officers and officials, we provide a comprehensive account of the functioning of complaints handling processes within the UK insolvency profession and a case study in the workings of professional self-regulation. Our principal finding is that firms' in-house complaints handling procedures are generally conceived of as tools for the centralized management of risk rather than as alternative systems of dispute resolution and redress, although there is evidence of an increasing emphasis on customer care and redress within those firms that concentrate on volume provision of debt relief services to consumer debtors. Within the regulators, we find, perhaps not unsurprisingly, a clear bias towards discipline and sanction rather than complainant redress.

Citizen or customer? Complaints handling in the public sector

Ensuring that public service complaints are handled effectively and rights of redress upheld is an integral feature of good governance and effective service delivery. A review of the academic literature and a number of key government reports reveals what citizen complaint and redress systems exist currently, how they can be designed and enabled to operate with the greatest positive impact, and why they are important in holding public officials accountable for the use of discretionary decision-making authority. With the development of new public management (NPM) and public sector reforms in many jurisdictions, a consumerist model for handling complaints has come increasingly to the fore. When combined with the traditional citizenship perspective, this would appear to have considerable potential for improving complaints handling and redress. However, the consumerist model's narrow focus on customer satisfaction and the risk of weakening citizenship values such as fairness and social justice suggest a cautious approach may be best. Public sector managers and professionals need an awareness of how public reform strategies oriented exclusively towards a strengthened consumer role do risk undermining important aspects of the complaints handling and redress strategies embedded in the `rule of law' and `due process' features of citizen-oriented public administration. Accountability may be weakened when service recipients are defined less in terms of their citizenship and more on the basis of a narrowly defined status as a marketplace consumer. This is a key implication of current trends by governments to rely increasingly on privatization, contracting-out and public—private partnerships to deliver services.Points for practitionersHow well service complaints are handled is a key determinant of quality in the public services at both systemic and service-recipient levels. Procedures that are easily accessible, simple to invoke and operate, transparent, ensure stakeholders are kept informed, and sensitive to different social groups help build confidence in complaints handling and redress processes. However, as more public services are delivered by quasi-public and private organizations using contracting and subcontracting arrangements, the challenge facing practitioners is how to ensure that citizen-centric values are maintained even as external review agencies like the Ombudsman and traditional accountability promoting procedures are replaced by narrower consumerist-oriented approaches.

The Bureaucratic Due Process of Government Watch Lists

Watch lists have become increasingly important tools for law enforcement and the protection of homeland security since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. These lists, however, pose dangers that innocent persons may be burdened either because they are included on such lists without justification or because they share a name with another individual who is appropriately listed. Our public law traditionally addresses this sort of risk through some redress-oriented scheme of due process that allows individuals alleging improper treatment to seek administrative and judicial relief from the error they assert in their particular case. Such an approach is inadequate to deal with antiterrorist watch lists for two reasons. First, redress systems will not protect the many individuals who will never realize they are covered by such lists. Second, there is an inherent tension between the goals of achieving security through watch lists and the design of a fully transparent redress system. Following the framework of Professor Jerry Mashaw, it would be preferable to adopt a bureaucratic justice approach that blends positive administration with law-like constraints on the exercise of discretion designed to secure important public values in the processes by which names wind up on watch lists in the first instance. This paper specifies the key requirements of a front-end fairness charter for watch lists, and recommends legislation to integrate that system with provisions on notice and two levels of back-end administrative redress specifically tailored to the watch list context. The paper also explains why the Privacy Act and Fifth Amendment due process law are inadequate to address current problems.

Access to Justice and Social Inclusion: The Policy Challenges in Wales

Enhancing access to legal and advice services is a central pillar of the Access to Justice Act 1999. Within the new welfare framework, employment rights come increasingly into focus as the UK government seeks to forge a link between welfare and work. Access to the labour market, and being sustained within it, are seen as major mechanisms for combating social exclusion. Discrimination at work can only thwart these ambitions. The Access to Justice reforms imply an assessment of need and a review of the ways in which individuals are negotiating the available system of redress. This article reports on a study of advice provision in employment discrimination cases in Wales, funded by the Legal Services Commission and the Equality Commissions in Wales. Drawing on the accounts of key providers, individual experiences of advice seeking and available statistical evidence, it explores the opportunities and constraints of the Welsh context and profiles many of the policy challenges posed for the devolved administration. It demonstrates that, despite advances in equalities legislation and policy directives aimed at strengthening people's employment rights, a number of critical obstacles remain for the most disadvantaged groups.

The distance marketing of consumer financial services directive

The EU directive on the distance marketing of consumer financial services (the DMD) was adopted in September 2002 bringing financial services in line with other retail sectors. This paper begins with an analysis of the principal substantive provisions of the DMD before considering the obligations it places on member states to ensure its substantive provisions are enforceable in national law and that an adequate system of redress is available to consumers. The paper then summarises the path taken by the DMD through the European legislative machine and analyses how the DMD will facilitate the integration of a European single market in financial services while striking an essential balance between the rights of the consumer and the rights of financial services providers. In the final part, consideration is given to how the DMD will be implemented by member states. In particular, attention is directed to the overall impact the DMD is likely to have on the marketing of financial services in the UK and how HM Treasury and the Financial Services Authority aim to harmonise domestic law with the DMD.

TOWARDS AN ACCOUNTABLE AND QUALITY PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN HONG KONG: REDRESSING ADMINISTRATIVE GRIEVANCES THROUGH THE OMBUDSMAN

ABSTRACT Following considerable public pressure, in 1989, the Hong Kong government followed many other countries and established an Ombudsman. The establishment of the post has to be seen in the context of the political awakening of Hong Kong and demands for a more accountable and client-oriented public service. Previously, complaints of maladministration in Hong Kong were dealt with under a diffuse and fragmentary system which lacked effective powers. Effective legal action against the government for maladministration is also severely constrained by a number of factors. This article traces the growth of the Ombudsman concept and jurisdiction in Western countries over the last few decades and outlines the structure and jurisdiction of the Ombudsman's office in Hong Kong by way of comparison. The effectiveness of the Hong Kong Ombudsman is then evaluated by a detailed analysis of his achievements over the last ten years in combating maladministration, and his role in three high profile cases. These cases also elucidate some of the limitations inherent in the Ombudsman's role. Lastly the future of the Ombudsman in Hong Kong is explored. It is concluded that the Office of Ombudsman has scored initial success in Hong Kong public administration, and has enhanced government efficiency as well as satisfying public needs and filling a major gap in the system of public redress. However, problems of continuing resources and mapping out a sustainable ethos remain.

CONSUMER SATISFACTION AND LOCAL REDRESS ALTERNATIVES

Local consumer protection agencies have proliferated in the United States in the last decade. Attention is given to the need for maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of these systems in order to better serve the consumer. The overall objective of this study is the assessment of the effectiveness of two major systems of consumer redress, the Better Business Bureau and the Small Claims Court. The study documents the nature of the formal third party consumer complaint system at the local level with empirical data from the two major consumer redress systems in a large, eastern, metropolitan area of the United States. Significant differences are found in the complaint characteristics and the redress probabilities of the two systems. Significant differences in consumer satisfaction with the two systems are discussed.