Annual Report for the Public Administration 2004

elief of the Bulgarian citizens that an opinion expressed in respect of the performance of the
administration will have minimum effect for improvement of the quality of the administrative services.
The feedback is the way for recording not only the negative reactions of the customers, but
also a means for collecting proposals. 14% of the citizens, in their direct contact with the
administration recommend that the quality of the administrative service should be improved. The
most unpopular methods used by the citizens for proposals for improvement of the quality of
administrative services are the proposals box and on-line contact. However, the collection of
proposals could be qualified as aimless if it is not followed by an analysis, undertaking of measures
and communicating the measures undertaken. Until this moment there is no practice created for the
employees to analyze the proposals forwarded by the citizens. 39% of the citizens who have given
proposals for improvement of the quality of the administrative service delivery do not have a
response and action on the part of the administration. There is a reduction to 31% in 2004 as
compared with the 33% for the year 2003 in the cases when the citizens have received an answer
but without any measures being undertaken on the part of the administration. The percentage of the
cases of response on the part of the administration and processing of the proposals made by the
citizens has increased from 20% for 2003 into 22% in the spring of 2004, and at the moment this
percentage has fallen to 19%.
In order that high quality of the services to be reached, the administrative services have to
work in coordination. A sign for the latter is the existence of a practice for interdepartamental
coordination of correspondence. The practice for interdepartamental official coordination emerges
either based on special provisions in the normative acts or on agreements between the
organizations. As a good practice in this area we can point to the performance of the Executive
Agency on Hydromelioration, Ministry of Health and Ministry of the Environment and Waters,
Regional administration Gabrovo and some municipalities on the territory of Gabrovo region.
Through the regular representative survey of NZIOM for 2004 carried out in respect of the
state-of-the-art and the organization of the administrative service delivery the following additional
most important conclusions have been made.
The executives and the employees give equally excellent ratings for the organization of the
work of their units. Unlike previous years, the employees of different length of service also give
similar ratings for the organization of work in the specific units. The percentage of employees who
find some deficiencies in the organization of the activity of the unit had been reduced with 13%.
From 27% to 21% for one year has been reduced the percentage of the critics on the part of the
employees towards the weak coordination between the administrative units. For the delivery of
more efficient services to the citizens and the business, 25% of the employees think that the
internal and external coordination between the administrations has to be improved. From the data
pointed out, we can conclude that the organization of the administrative service delivery becomes
better and better, but further efforts are still needed for the optimization of the process. Obviously,
this could be achieved also through the improvement of the internal information flows in the
administration, because 69% of the employees state, that the establishment of functional
mechanisms for dissemination of information in horizontal and vertical directions is an effective
means for improvement of their performance.
The percentage of the “reluctance to work” as a probable cause for slow and low quality
services, according to the customers has risen from 43% for 2003 into 48% for 2004.
The citizens define that the employees in the administrations at central and municipal levels
possess high professional qualification and culture. From 36% for 2003 to 33% for 2004 falls the
percentage of the citizens who define the culture of the employees as not satisfying the
requirements of the administrative service delivery. Despite the fact that the citizens are still having
a critical attitude, the image of the employees of the administration in view of professionalism and
ethics is becoming better and better. The lack of adequate motivation for the employees for the
delivery of high quality administrative services can be outlined as a problem of the society.
2004 Annual Report for the Public Administration 23