The quality of public and municipal services: efforts and results of administrative reform

The subject matter of the article is the measures taken by the public administration bodies and municipal authorities to improve the quality of public and municipal services. The goal of the article is to assess the governments efforts to increase the quality, accessibility of public services and the results of 10 years of the administrative reform in the Russian Federation. Conclusions are drawn on the results of sociological polls. The article systematizes the main steps, goals, expectations and efforts to increase the quality of public and municipal services that the bodies of public administration and self governance have made during 10 years of the administrative reform.The data of the sociological poll on the results of this work held by the Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation in 2011- 2013 and headed by the author of the article, are analyzed and presented here.A positive result of the system efforts to increase the quality of public and municipal services can be ascertained on the basis of the research conclusions. It, in the long run, reveals itself in the growing satisfaction of recipients of the services both at the start and in the last years of the reform. Research of 2013 showed that 77.7% of the respondents estimated the quality of the services provided for them as satisfactory (74.6% in 2011; 75.5% in 2012).Conclusions: a) during 10 years of the administrative reform in the Russian Federation system and goal-oriented efforts to increase the quality of public and municipal services have been undertaken by the bodies of public administration and of local self - governance; b) these efforts, despite some problems that still exist, give tangible positive results, thus increasing the level of citizens satisfaction with the services they receive; c) to achieve the set ambitious satisfaction level goal of 90% by 2018, it is necessary to continue working hard within the framework of the administrative reform, including additional measures to achieve the goals.This experience suggests that analogous system efforts could be useful for making better other services, including social services, provided by the public and municipal administration bodies either under their control or with their direct participation. Such efforts could be useful for making citizens more satisfied with the performance of the public and local administration bodies as well.