Citizen Satisfaction Index System

Introduction

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) envisions Local Government Units (LGUs) to be self-reliant, development-oriented, safe, peaceful, socially-protective, business-friendly, environmentally protective, as well as transparent, accountable and participative.

The new challenges inspire the DILG and the local government sector to keep up with the trends in governance and public management by setting higher standards in performance management that target fulfilment of actual needs of the citizens. If citizens are able to avail and maximize services that promote basic human development conditions, they are more likely to participate in economic and civil life.

LGUs in the Philippines, under the Local Government Code of 1991, are mandated to provide basic services that are responsive to the needs of their citizens. Section 16 of the same law states that:

Every local government unit shall exercise the powers expressly granted, those necessarily implied therefrom, as well as powers necessary, appropriate, or incidental for its efficient and effective governance, and those which are essential to the promotion of the general welfare. (…)

This intensely describes the potent and central role of local governments in propelling and ushering in local economic and social development in the communities.

This Department has been utilizing performance measurement tools for LGUs as early as the 1980s. As local governance is a vast domain in terms of conceptual breadth, programs were focused on building the internal capacity of LGUs and on developing outcome indicators on a number of thematic performance areas. These tools like the Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS), Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG), Transcending Accountable and Responsive Governance through Empowerment and Teamwork (TARGET) have been and are excellent diagnostic tools for LGUs to assess their readiness of local government units to provide service to their people. However, given the high mandate to LGUs in ensuring the people’s general welfare, it is only reasonable that the clients’ or the citizens’ perspective should also be part of the equation in so far as local government performance is concerned.

As the intended recipients and end-users of public services, the citizens are deemed in a better position to determine whether or not these services are delivered according to their needs and to the extent that they fulfill their everyday and long-term human development requirements. Thus, getting their sentiments, opinions and insights based on their own perception and evaluation as consumers of local public services is a logical method of shaping what local governments need to do to ensure welfare of the citizens, without neglect of statutory requirements expected from them.

This context provides the reason for the interest of this Department to develop and implement the Citizen Satisfaction Index System to serve as a tool for drawing in applicable information for gauging citizen satisfaction that can be used for agenda-setting of economic and human development plans and goals of LGUs. The revival of the CSIS was in the context of the DILG’s renewed and expanded commitment towards widening the spaces for participation in local governance to ultimately pave ways to the development of a more transparent, accountable and highly performing local governments.

The CSIS uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods through face-to-face interviews with actual residents randomly sampled from the barangays of the target LGUs. The CSIS uses multi-stage probability sampling (see Chapter 4) in order to ensure that every citizen is given an equal chance to be selected as a participant in the study with no preference for any particular socio-demographic characteristic, political/ideological orientation or religious belief.

Through DILG Memorandum Circular 2017-169, the Citizen Satisfaction Index System will be implemented in 15 municipalities in order to equip them with tools and procedures needed for implementation. Local Resource Institutes are contracted by the Department as partners in gathering data and interpreting results for development and research purposes.

The CSIS data have a number of potential uses for many stakeholders pursuing valuable contribution in local and national socio-economic development. The CSIS data provide the stakeholders, most importantly the LGUs, basis for crafting well-informed policies and management decisions in their mandate of providing basic services to the people. LGUs may benefit from the CSIS by capturing the pulse of the people towards achieving responsiveness to wider parts of the population. The data can help them strengthen their decisions on policies and programs that focus on services deemed to be areas for development and those that strongly drive citizen satisfaction. With a knowledge base citizen-driven assessment of basic services, the DILG, for example, can provide more well-informed oversight supervision and technical-administrative support to the LGUs.

National Government Agencies (NGAs) and the legislature may also target specific service areas deemed weak or need complementation from national programs. Civil Society Organizations


Project Management

2.1. Project Cycle

Figure 1. The CSIS Project Cycle

The CSIS Project Cycle is composed of six (6) major processes. First, the orientation of Regional Focal Persons (RFPs) is conducted to capacitate DILG personnel on institutional preparations for the conduct of fieldwork and utilization conferences. The service delivery baseline data collection, on the other hand, is necessary to generate background data on the service delivery profile of the LGUs being covered. The baseline data sheet, as an output of data collection, will be an input to the edited questionnaire.

The training of Local Resource Institutes (LRIs) is conducted to prepare and capacitate the LRI key personnel on the procedures and processes necessary for the fieldwork. Knowledge products and tools essential for fieldwork activities are turned over to the LRIs during this activity. Questions and concerns are also discussed in detail in order to anticipate particular issues that may affect the said implementation. At the end of the training, timelines for each key deliverables of the fieldwork implementation are identified and submitted to the DILG.

The fieldwork processes can further be divided into sub-processes, namely: sampling, data gathering/interviewing, data processing, analysis, report preparation, and completion and evaluation. These will further be explained in detail in this manual. At the end of fieldwork, the Citizen Satisfaction Report and the Project Implementation Report shall be submitted to the DILG for evaluation. Finally, when all reports are deemed final and approved, Utilization Conferences shall be held in order to present the CSIS results to the respective local government units (LGUs) and to utilize results into concrete action plans in furthering the development of local services.

The last process in the CSIS cycle involves monitoring and evaluation of the action plans identified by the LGUs.

2.2. The Local Resource Institute (LRI) Team

Figure 2. Functional Chart of an LRI Team

The LRI Team is generally composed of a Project Manager, Field Supervisors, and Data Processors, based on functions. The number of the different roles vary depend on the size of the project.

3. Conceptual Framework

Figure 3. CSIS Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework above defines the scope of concepts used in measuring citizen satisfaction in so far as the CSIS is concerned. The group bound by the dotted line is composed of the core concepts in measuring satisfaction in the service or program level. The core concepts have logical relationships with each other (as discussed below). The dashed line defines the boundary of citizen perception of service delivery, separating the inner concepts from the socio-demographic profile and the services actually being provided by their local governments.

Inside the citizen’s perception domain are the core concepts; reasons that substantiate the core concepts; general attitudes of citizens toward the LGU; overall satisfaction; overall need for action; and recommendations for improvement. These concepts compose the key results of the CSIS survey because they are the main information gathered from the citizens to assess how well public services by their LGUs are received or perceived in their point of view. Above it are the: the socio-demographic profile and the housing profile that provide background about the citizen.

3.1. Service Areas and Service Indicators


Service areas and indicators are heavily sourced from the Local Government Code of 1991 under Section 17. During the implementation of the CSIS in 2013-2016, a number of consultations with local functionaries and national government agencies have contributed in updating the different services deemed to be locally implemented. These different services serve as the bases of assessment of the respondents.

The following are the major services expected from LGUs:
Health Services
1. Vaccination for infants/children
2. Pre-natal/post-natal/child birth services
3. Free General Consultations/Access to secondary and/or tertiary health care
4. Free Basic Medicine or Low-Cost Medicine Program
5. Prevention and Management of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases
6. Basic dental/oral hygiene
7. Family Planning/ Reproductive Health Distribution of reproductive health supplies, information dissemination and other services

Support to Education
1. Provision of medical and/or nutritional services to school clinics
2. Sports programs and activities
3. Scholarships and other assistance programs for students
4. Alternative Learning System and/or other Special Education Programs

Social Welfare Services
1. Child and Youth Welfare Program
2. Women’s Welfare Program
3. Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Welfare Program
4. Older Persons / Senior Citizens Program
5. Family and Community Welfare Program
6. Programs for Internally Displaced Persons

Governance and Response
1. Delivery of Frontline services (retrieval of birth and marriage certificates, public records, land titles, etc.)
2. Local government’s response or action on complaints against an office, official or personnel of the LGU
3. Mobile LGU services; Provision of municipal services to the barangays
4. Conflict and dispute resolution in the barangays
5. Timely Response on Peace and Order and Public Safety-related incidents
6. Traffic Management
7. Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
8. Public Information Services

Public Works and Infrastructure
1. Barangay roads
2. Municipal roads and bridges
3. Barangay hall
4. Multipurpose halls or civic centers
5. Public markets and satellite markets
6. Public parks and open spaces
7. Road Safety
8. Sports centers and facilities
9. Information and reading center
10. Municipal Government Buildings
11. Public Cemetery
12. Flood Control Management System

Environmental Management
1. Community-based Greening Projects
2. Air Pollution Control Program
3. Solid Waste Management
4. Waste Water Management
5. Clean-up Programs/Projects

Economic and Investment Promotion
1. Public Employment Services
2. Regulation and supervision of businesses
3. Promotion of Barangay Micro Business Enterprises
4. Livelihood Programs
5. Development and maintenance of tourist attractions and facilities
6. Product/Brand marketing and promotion of local goods and tourist attractions
7. Investment promotion activities such as trade fairs, fiestas, business events and similar events
8. Organization, accreditation and training of tourism-related concessions
9. Organization and development of farmers, fishermen and their cooperatives
10. Access to irrigation facilities or use of irrigation equipment
11. Prevention and control of plant and animal pests and diseases; fish kills and diseases
12. Distribution of planting/farming/fishing materials and/or equipment
13. Access to facilities that promote agricultural production such as fish hatcheries and breeding stations
14. Water and soil resource utilization and conservation projects
15. Post-Harvest Facilities such as crop dryers, slaughter houses or fish processing facilities
16. Accessible farm harvest buying/trading stations
17. Enforcement of fishery laws in municipal waters to promote sustainable use of aquatic resources

The above are the initial and exhaustive structure of the services and service areas. Final indicators shall be a result of customization of the exhaustive list based on the service delivery baseline data submitted by the LGU.