Albertina Nakale
Windhoek-In her quest for operational efficiency and excellent service delivery to the public the Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Sophia Shaningwa, has launched the customer service charter of the ministry and individual charters for each operational unit or directorate.
The main objective of the charter is to provide a framework for defining service delivery standards, the rights of customers and how complaints from customers, if any, will be handled.
Therefore, Shaningwa cautioned staff that the charter is a “serious commitment and undertaking and not a mere document or publicity stunt”.
And she urged her team to demonstrate their resolve to service excellence and live up to what they are committing in the charter.
“We must pull together in the same direction on this, and anyone of us who does not play his or her part will be held accountable,” she threatened.
The launch of the charter follows a directive to all ministries, offices and agencies of the government to develop strategic and annual plans as well as a customer service charter.
Shaningwa thus took the lead last Thursday to launch the customer service charter with the aim of transforming the Namibian public service at all levels into a performance and result-oriented organisation.
She said the ministry’s charter has been developed along some guiding principles. “Specifically our charter sets out who we are and what we do, who our customers are, our commitment and service promise to our customers, the rights and obligations of our customers,” she noted.
Further, she said, the charter includes guidelines on how complaints received by the ministry from customers will be handled and the importance of customer feedback – whether positive or negative.
As a ministry, she said, they are committed to render quality and timely service to their customers at all times.
The ministry is mandated to scale up the provision of housing and other basic infrastructure and services and meet the general developmental needs of people in both urban and rural areas.
Therefore, she said, the charter is a re-affirmation of their pledge of unwavering commitment and rededication to provide the people of Namibia the service that meets their expectations and to the best of their ability.
Additionally, she urged her staff to acquaint themselves with the content of the charter and use it as their guide and everyday reference document in their work.
“By launching and displaying the charter we are re-affirming the rights of the public, our clients, to hold us accountable and assess the quality and level of the services they are receiving from us against the specific commitment, delivery levels and standards that we set out in the charter,” she said.
Since the launched charter is only for the ministry, as the sector minister of regional councils and local authorities she implored the councils, which are the government structures that are closest and directly involved in the provision of services to the public, to have in place their individual customer service charters.
She revealed the charter has been uploaded on the ministry’s website. There will also be suggestion boxes on each floor of the ministry’s building for members of public to deposit any queries or complaints that they may have on services provided by the ministry.