Albertina Nakale
Windhoek
The Office of the Prime Minister has announced that it will officially launch its Citizen Satisfaction Survey 2017 next week Tuesday.
The prime minister’s office initially envisaged that it would start the survey towards the end of 2016, but for one or other reason, it never kicked off.
Chief Policy Analyst: Directorate of Public Service Innovation and Reform in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Deon van Zyl, has now indicated they will finally launch the survey in Windhoek next week.
He noted the survey was a centrepiece of the Harambee Prosperity Plan and the largest survey of its kind ever undertaken in Namibia.
Van Zyl said survey officials would visit more than 3,000 homes and they expected participants to complete more than 18,000 questionnaires.
“The Government of the Republic of Namibia is serious about engaging citizens regarding the quality of public service delivery. The Office of the Prime Minister is tasked with implementing the study. It is doing so in cooperation with the Namibia University of Science and Technology,” he explained.
While they initially planned to launch the survey by the end of last year, they had also expected to complete the analysis and take remedial action this year.
The Harambee Prosperity Plan stipulates that the OPM will develop a Citizen Satisfaction Survey tool and ensure the survey is independently administered and analysed on an annual basis.
The plan sets out that the survey will amongst others measure response and turnaround times of Government.
Officials would then analyse the results of the survey and implement remedial measures in subsequent years.
The plan directs that all offices, ministries and agencies as well as regional and local government structures will be rated annually on how they treat citizens and the results of the survey will be made public.
According the Harambee Prosperity plan the annual customer satisfaction survey will also extend to the business community. The plan recognises that service delivery is not only a challenge in the public sector.
It was therefore agreed that in the true Harambee spirit, the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) would annually measure customer satisfaction in the business sector.
Enumerators are expected to go in the field after the survey has been launched. The OPM said only Namibian citizens aged 21 and older will be eligible to participate in the survey.
It is expected that data collection will take up to three months.
There are also reports that the OPM also sought to track public sentiment with the use of opinion polls on specific matters.