A sign of hope in government services

It is rare that I praise civil servants in my articles. The failings of public services are well known and reported on regularly, but there are some noticeable exceptions.

I have praised the forestry department and the dedication of its staff who are there to help any member of the public plant and maintain forest trees. We once had a team of forestry officials visit a development in order to save a pine tree that was approximately 20 years old.

Similarly, a recent visit to a Citizen Services centre came as a pleasant surprise.

The Citizen’s Information Service was launched in April 2000, to provide citizens with efficient service.

According to the ministry website, through this service, the citizen has direct access to the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works for any problems, complaints and/or suggestions that are related to the ministry.

The objective to give to the public direct information, and relevant assistance. Through this, any inconvenience that might be caused by existing bureaucratic procedures is avoided.

The service functions on a 24-hour basis with the use of an automatic telephone answering machine, which is in use when the office is closed or there is no officer available at the time of the call. In this case the messages are recorded, and immediate action is taken.

The service includes renewal of driver’s licences and identity cards, citizen’s queries that have not received replies, health cards and so on.

We entered the Makarios Avenue branch in Nicosia for an 11.30am appointment. We confirmed our appointment and were given a number. We sat down to wait and our number was called after about 10 minutes. We were directed to an office where a very polite woman helped us. The job was completed within around 20 minutes from the time we entered the establishment.

The whole experience gave us the impression that we were in another country, not only due to the efficiency, but also the politeness of the staff.

After asking around it seems that this was not a one-off experience but that the citizen services in general provides good service.

This is an example for other services to follow, which can improve life in Cyprus by getting rid of the endless bureaucracy one faces when dealing with other government departments.

A similar project, known as Ariadni, has been recently introduced regarding matters of town planning, permits, title deeds and so on.  This is definitely the way forward for governmental services and we hope that this direction will be followed by many other departments.

Antonis Loizou & Associates EPE – Real Estate Appraisers & Development Project Managers, www.aloizou.com.cy, [email protected]