THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC SERVICES IN CONTINENTAL PORTUGAL THE PAC CASE

Maria de Ftima Verdelho Fontoura* (fatima.fountoura@cm-mirandela.pt); Paula Odete FERNANDES** (pof@ipb.pt) * Instituto Politcnico de Bragana, Portugal.** Instituto Politcnico de Bragana, Portugal & NECE[footnoteRef:1] (Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal) & UNIAG, Management Applied Research Unit (UNIAG), Portugal. [1: R&D Centre funded by the Multiannual Funding Programme of R&D Centres of FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, Ministry of Education and Science.]

Abstract:The Agency for Administrative Modernisation, IP is integrated in indirect Administration and aims to operationalize initiatives to modernize and boost the participation and involvement of different stakeholders, whether internally or in their relationship with citizens, aimed the simplification and innovation in achieving the change Public Administration.The Citizen Service Points (PAC) are multiservice with personalized service, installed in Local Municipalities, as extensions of Citizen Shops, which equip the regions of greatest interiority of a multichannel network ensuring greater proximity with the requirements and due diligence for Public Administration.In this respect, with the assumption the paradigm change in the delivery of public services, the objective of this study was based on measuring citizen satisfaction regarding the services provided in the PAC. To this end, descriptive univariate and bivariate analysis was performed for the treatment of data collected and in order to meet the main goal of the present research. All inference analysis was carried to determine if the differences and/or relationships found between the features in the sample are extrapolated to the population, considering a significance level of 5%. For this purpose, the object of study focused on Citizen, a sample of 306 users, that go to the 54 PAC distributed by Portugal. According to the results achieved, it can be said that citizens are very satisfied with the efficacy of the PAC. Also showed that the variables related to Accessibility, Products and Services and Involvement and Participation of the citizen have the greatest weight when we trying to measure global satisfaction of the citizen while PAC users.

Keywords: Public Service; Citizen Service Points; Efficacy; Interoperability; Satisfaction.

INTRODUCTION

In the context of actions leading to a greater proximity from citizens to the state appeared in 2002, in the wake of Citizens Shops, a new awareness: The Citizen Service Points (PAC). The Citizen Service Points implemented in Portugal reflect the actions of various governments for the implementation of the new paradigm of decentralized public services, closer to the citizen and all economic agents. Additionally, the analysis of the public service value to society made clear the relevance of the physical distribution model focused public services, in a complementary logic in relation to other distribution channels. It also allowed understanding their own catalytic role in administrative modernization, as well as the direct and indirect effects for citizens, businesses and the own image of the country.In this context arises the present research work which intends to analyse the impact and proficiency of this channel of public services, the Citizen Service Points with increasing importance in everyday life and quality of life of the populations they serve. Strategically located in regions with lower population density and installed in municipalities, but still very little studied, despite the multiplicity of interests and material available for research. Thus, the objective of this study is based on certifying the satisfaction of citizens using PAC, in its many valences. It was understood also to investigate on this subject would be a disclosure of the PAC and the services provided therein, because, unfortunately, it appears that there is still a lack of knowledge of this type of service in one part of population. Thus, it is believed that the reach of this study is a way to validate and promote what has been done and is being done in the administrative modernization in Portugal, as well as to identify how the public perceives the good practices and how these positively influence their relationship with the state and their quality of life.The purpose of this research study was focused on citizens who used one of the 54 Citizen Service Points in Portugal Continental. The PAC on the islands of Madeira and Azores not included in this study because of specific circumstances of coordination of respective Regional Governments what would take much more time to collect data.We chose to use a descriptive and quantitative methodology. The instrument for data collection was based on the model CAF (Common Assessment Framework), builds on the excellence model of EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) and in order to contribute to the public services improvement through self-assessment based on a model consisting of criteria based on principles of excellence. We applied a questionnaire titled Satisfaction Questionnaire for Citizens/Clients, divided into 4 components with which it was intended to obtain information on the Global Image Organization, Involvement and Participation, Accessibility, Products and Services. The set of information collected identify the importance attached to the service, the satisfaction of citizens and consequently the perceived quality of the PAC.In this sense, this empirical study is organized into six points. After this point where it is made a brief introduction to the topic under study, in the following section it will be presented the organizational model adopted for decentralization and public service improvement. Subsequently the second point addresses the issue of the Citizen Service Points impact in Portugal. Under points three and four, it is made, the empirical analysis on the study subject, is intended to meet the target of empirical study and validate the research hypotheses, will be described the data collection methods instruments and research techniques, data collection process and the procedure for its collection and sample selection, processing, analysis, discussion and interpretation of results. Lastly will be presented the main conclusions of this study.

1. PUBLIC SERVICES DESCENTRALIZATION One of the main conclusions of Putting Citizens First, a study conducted by the Public Administration Committee of the OECD (1996), on administrative modernization in Portugal, showed that the orientation of the citizen was the engine of change management. One of the most successful examples of the close relations between citizens and the administration was the creation of local services, including the Citizen Shop and Citizen Service Points, at the level of central government and the Municipal Services Assistance, at local government.In this context, the municipal service comes embodied in a new organizational unit to facilitate the relationship between citizens and the municipality, providing better access to information. This new unit, commonly known as Municipal Services Assistance, or even the Citizen Office, functions as the municipality front office.Its main tasks are: the treatment of various issues related to licensing and payment of fees and licenses, assignments within the city, the receipt and delivery of documents and several citizen requests, forwarding all applications to the various municipal services , providing information on the status of specific processes and other matters useful to citizens, as in the case of the valences of the Citizen Service Points and other branches or portals that are normally installed in these physical spaces, it is therefore within the municipal service that develops throughout the service Public Administration (PA ) decentralized services.There is no doubt, however, that local government became more coordinator and less service provider and operates in a more increasingly competitive and dynamic environment. The coordination calls for new policy instruments and strategies, such as public/private partnerships and networks participation among politicians, employees and citizens.It is time for the Public Administration to convince himself that his existence is justified by citizens and not by its mere existence. It exists to help promote the citizens and economic agents initiative in constructing a dynamic and social entrepreneur environment. A civically engaged society requires facilitator Administration in what concerns the initiative of citizens and economic agents.It is in this context that the progressive implementation of new information technologies is constituted as a crucial lever for creating an environment conducive to universal infrastructure for e-Government, allowing the society to encourage the sharing of public responsibilities. The construction of this new society involves the continuous production of new knowledge.Based on all the above, and based on the information the Agency for Administrative Modernisation (AMA), was establish to enunciate some Portals in operation or being implemented nationwide: Citizen's Portal and Portal Enterprise; BMS - Multiservice Counter; Citizen Shop Mobile; One Stop Shop - Let's Have A Child; Balcony I Lost my Wallet; Simplex MAR; Senior Balcony; Entrepreneur Balcony.As Junqueiro (2002) states The e-government, besides and providing a significant reduction in public expenditure, also means greater transparency in relations between citizens and civil society (pp. 336-337). This author also notes, with emphasis, that the start of digital technologies in Public Administration offers a real opportunity to increase efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness. Also believes that states need to invest heavily in how public services are provided, using new tools and digital technologies and reshaping its inner workings, breaking interdepartmental barriers and redesigning new methods and organizational forms.

2. THE IMPACT OF CITIZEN SERVICE POINTS IN PORTUGALAccording to information released by the General Agency for Administrative Modernisation, through various channels you have access to the image of the PAC and its impact on the lives of citizens and businesses is very relevant, the services near to economic and social agents is extremely important and qualitatively changes qualitatively the lives of everyone. Without knowing a study concerning this subject, it is known that the PAC has inferred a degree of quality public services.A good perception of the service is created, not only by a technically correct work, but also by the successful interaction between user and employee. Even though there are among the population very different reasons for evaluating the PAC, the new service units are cosy, unlike the old public office, the new are characterized by a healthy, clean and ventilated environment which provides comfort and welfare to the citizen, with high functionality and structured to allow the integration of various organizational services installed on them, to all this it is added the standardization of clothing and identification of officials/employees. The location in strategic areas is one of the key factors, it is intended for citizen easy access to the service, near parking areas served by public transport, and these are very relevant indicators to the population who uses the PAC and for Local Authorities that received them.The access to services for people with special needs, particularly with regard to architectural barriers is also a factor of quality and equity of services to all citizens. Modern computer technology allows rapid communication between different actors in the network and access to databases, which gives citizens a feeling of security and certainty that their process is not simply on paper. The fact that users can make payments electronically is one of the advantages pointed to this service. People who integrate these units are selected for their expertise and sensitivity to serve. The continuous training equally concerns the use of knowledge, as in the behavioural area.The citizen/user perceives the review and continuous improvement, a permanent search for greater efficiency, simplicity, speed and quality of service, with attitudes and innovative procedures, example of this is the extended hours of service in some existing PAC and highly valued by citizens, so that it can serve a greater number of people, in their spare time, it is imperative to extend the opening hours beyond the normal working hours of the vast majority of the population.Disclosure of services is definitely the weak point of this service, through information provided by the AMA, it appears that a portion of the population does not know the existence of such a service in his area, so the strong use of the media, with extensive informative advertising that enables the citizen to be informed of all the features and types of services offered in the PAC, that was never properly implemented, it remains a bad example for the process that the AMA is to be undertaken and already in very advanced stage, that is transforming the PAC in Multiservice Counter-Citizen Shops 2nd Generation, in order to a proper disclosure will be made. Since this type of service is even more important for the citizen, the number of valences in BMS more than doubled compared to the PAC, so, disclosure is vital for citizens.When the services provided meet or exceed the desires and needs, responding to their expectations with value many times higher than expected, the user is satisfied and acknowledges what is being provided, such as 'Dazzling of Customer' (Kotler, 2009). Thus, the citizens' satisfaction with public services is improved governance in order to place it in the centre of attention of the public organization. Thus, the citizen is anyone (person or entity) seen as the beginning and end of public sector activity. Another very important aspect to understand the complexity of the role of public administration, are the periodic changes of leadership, which requires greater effort to manage public machine.Relevant also is to involve stakeholders in the process, either in the internal environment (those within the organization, whether departments or employees) and external environment (those receiving services: citizens, public partnerships, etc.) , is an important strategy to achieve the desired results (Drucker, 2001), since, as is well known face of so many unfulfilled promises many citizens were inflexible, suspicious and resistant to discourses of a public sector more interested in services more modern efficient (Klibsberg, 2009).In this respect, the public organization must disclose to the society in fact what can be done and, in particular, what it has done to achieve citizen satisfaction, attract him to participate in the change process to improve it, for it is through him that many disorders are identified, and thus coherent measures can be applied.However satisfy the requirements of its users has been an on-going concern of private and public organizations, which come from the late twentieth century, to adapt their structures, changing their management practices and invest in training their employees (Brady & Cronin, 2001).In this context, appear each time administrative and technological innovations that result in improved quality of products and services offered to citizens who are increasingly demanding and aware of their rights, especially in developing countries.As regards the public sector, the Portuguese government, according to a retrospective compiled from the Citizen Shops, initiated efforts to enter the public administration in the context of quality management through a number of initiatives where the most outstanding successive openings of Citizen Service Points, Citizen Shops and Portals, managing sow some methods and techniques of Quality Management, which served to sensitize public organizations to focus on the citizen.The PAC project arose to dictate alternatives , to change the image of public administration characterized by excessive formalism, units unable to meet the demand for services, poor and uncomfortable physical facilities attendance by privilege and servers disinterested and unmotivated. This outlook reflects what was characterized as the dysfunctions of bureaucracy. Too much formality and impersonality bring as a result an inefficient system, dominated by paperwork and narrow minded professionals, unable to make decisions and think for themselves.The increasing demand for services and the public satisfaction and compliment signalised the feasibility of transforming what was temporary into permanent. The PAC project has become an organizer and conductor of a proximity public service to citizens who perceived their quality.The first PAC was inaugurated in the municipality of Cascais in July 2004. This type of service has become a showcase where the successes and mistakes are common knowledge. Transparency strengthens the commitment of employees and partners, and alert to the need to review and adapt the adopted procedures.Networks are new forms of organizational life that are incorporated into all organizational levels, to meet the challenges of today, since traditional forms of organization, hierarchy and bureaucracy, are not sufficient to overcome them, as said Lipnack (1994) and Berry (1980).The Citizen Service Points cover the whole Portuguese territory, as already mentioned this study included the referenced posts in Portuguese mainland. These multiservice posts with personalized service are located in places with lower population density. The services available at the PAC want to respond to the specific needs of populations in relation to services provided by central authorities.The PAC are installed in autarchies, they indicate in which physical space the citizen can take added value service, as already mentioned, with the creation of the Municipal Assistance Offices, the two services have appreciated even more because the Municipal services centralization also began also to contemplate, in the same space, the central state services.Employees assigned to PAC service are human resources from the entities that receive the PAC, i.e. Local Administration human resources, these people are who, because of their proximity to the citizen, do a remarkable job of answering and routing, some training gaps , unfamiliarity with new tools in portals, imprecise information about some central services and poor leadership, do not prevent them from turning the gaps into challenges and in favour of the best citizen interests, provide a friendly and effective work, in which citizens perceive the quality and effort and apprehends satisfaction.This is another example of how the People Management not being brought to its real meaning, which is to work with people and not use them passively as mere objects to obtain results, makes this large set of collaborators overcome many constraints, and being themselves aware of their responsibilities and public function, take the initiative to equip themselves with skills to serve the citizen.

3. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC SERVICES IN CONTINENTAL PORTUGAL THE PAC CASE 3.1. Research methodologyThe main objective of this work is based on assure the satisfaction of citizens using PAC, in its many valences, studying in a systematic way what the actual impacts of implementing a set of services in Citizen Service Points are reflected in citizens satisfaction. To such, it was opted to select as its subject one of the 54 Citizen Service Points users in Portuguese mainland. Emphasized that the services offered through the Citizen Service Points reflect the concern to answer to the needs felt by most people living in areas far from the Central Administration.In order to assist and guide the empirical study and taking into account the above objectives as a way to respond to the latent variable, overall satisfaction with the services provided, it was made up a division by 4 of the same components, namely: Global Image Organization, Involvement and Participation, Accessibility and Products and Services.In this sense and to meet the main goal of the study were formulated and tested the following research hypotheses:Hypothesis 1: The citizens are generally satisfied with the services provided in the PAC.Hypothesis 2: The components of Global Image Organization, Involvement and Participation, Accessibility and Products and Services are correlated with Citizens Global Satisfaction.The data collection instrument used in this empirical study was the CAF Model 2006, Common Assessment Framework, for Quality Public Administrations Quality on the European Union. Note that the CAF analyses the organization from different perspectives, providing a holistic analysis of its performance. In the present study was based on the perspective of citizens/customers.The application of the questionnaire survey allowed the collection a sample of the knowledge, attitudes, values and behaviours of the respondents. The questionnaire consists of 40 questions and is divided into two large groups, one group is composed by all the 4 components (total of 35 items) and related items, namely: Global Organization Image with 7 items, Involvement and Participation with 5 items, Accessibility with 15 items and Products and Services with 8 items. A 2nd group with 5 socio demographic questions, which aims to characterize the citizens, name, age, sex, occupation and qualifications.Aiming the measurement of different items it was used the Likert five points scale that is to say 5 possible answers. Thus, the scale requires respondents to indicate their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with statements regarding the situation that is being measured through numeric values, since the answers reflect the strength and direction of the respondent's reaction to the statement. The statements of satisfaction should receive high values while the statements of dissatisfaction should receive low values, so the scale in this questionnaire comprises: 1 = Very Dissatisfied, 2 = Dissatisfied, 3 = Moderately Satisfied, 4 = Satisfied and 5 = Very Satisfied.As for the process of data collection, it took place between April and December 2011. The questionnaires were distributed proportionally in districts where they are installed the 54 PAC. In total 306 inquiries were collected corresponding approximately to 57% of the 557 and 70% of the initial sample of 450 inquiries. Note that a first approach to the issue of the size of the initial sample of 450 citizens having taken was a sample error of 4.62% and a confidence interval of 95%. Later and since it was not possible to collect the 450 questionnaires but only 306, the final sample error was 5.6% assuming a significance level of 5%.After the data collection and its creation of the database was necessary to assess the degree of internal consistency of data collection (Hill & Hill, 2002). For this we used the Cronbach's Alpha, having been obtained for the present study an internal consistency coefficient of 0.958, which according to the authors Gageiro and Pestana (2008) is a very good internal consistency allowing to note that the reliability of the questionnaire is very good.Descriptive univariate analysis was performed, bivariate for the treatment of data collected and in order to meet the primary objective of the present study. Univariate analysis focused on descriptive statistical results related to the study sample socio demographic variables (e.g. gender, age, occupation, region and educational attainment). Moreover, the bivariate descriptive analysis aimed to explore the relationship between certain pairs of variables to realize the level of citizen involvement with the PAC. All inference analysis is performed to determine whether the differences and/or relationships between features found in the sample are extrapolated to the population, considering a confidence interval of 95%.3.2. Sample CharacterizationRegarding the distribution of the sample by geographic zone the data can be identified reading Fig. 1, where one can observe that the area of Portuguese Mainland with increased demand for services from what is demonstrated by the highest concentration of Citizen Service Points is the centre, with a percentage of 62.4%, clearly more than the sum of the other two zones, the North with 3,3% and the South with 4.2%. Figure 1. Percentage of citizens by geographical area.

Regarding the gender of users who demand the services of the PAC (Fig. 2), it can be seen that the sample consists of 58.1% female users and 41.9% male users.

Figure 2. Percentage of citizens by gender.

The majority of the interviewed 41% have secondary education, including the ancient courses of Commercial and Industrial Schools and High Schools. Interestingly the fact that 24.3% of respondents have degrees or higher education or are attending university. Holders of basic education accounted 34.7%% of respondents (Fig. 3). Figure 3. Percentage of citizens per academic qualifications.

According to the results it can be seen a diversified distribution of age of respondents (Fig. 4). Thus, the age bracket which has a higher concentration of respondents is between 31 to 40 years, 24.2%, followed by ages 41 to 50 years, with 22.1% the echelon 51to 60 registers 17.7% and the opposite between 21 to 30 points out 16%. The age of 61-70 shows a considerable percentage of users, 11.7%, and from 71 years and between 18 and 20 years are those who have a lower value, 6.5% and 1.7% respectively.

Figure 4. Percentage of citizens by age group.

4. DISCUSSION AND RESULTS INTERPRETATION4.1. The citizens satisfactionIn response to the latent variable global satisfaction of citizens with the PAC, the main hypothesis of this research study - hypothesis 1, it can be said that the analysis and interpretation of the data presented in Fig. 5, it is considered that the summary of a Mean value of 3.99 and standard deviation (SD) of 0.619, shows satisfactory results with respect to the satisfaction of citizens using the PAC. In fact, the idea of a generalized inability of public entities to respond promptly and appropriately to requests from citizens seems to persist, partly attributed to the persistence of bureaucratic constraints and, in some cases, of abuse of power. Although it has been observed an increase in the level of demand from users for services provided by PAC, there is still the existence of a certain degree of compromise in situations less satisfactory, because users find that certain service aspects, including the physical concentration of services and the courtesy of the staff service, compensate, to some extent, the most unsatisfactory factors. However the citizens of a country, as a whole, are able to identify, or at least feel the quality of its service delivery system, when it is perceived and result on common benefits, derives also from this factor requirement of accessible, fair and equitable, quality, effective management in problem solving and efficient use of public resources, which the AP responds as it is an example the PAC model although it displays a set of standard features, seeks to adapt to characteristics of the localities in which it operates, particularly in terms of physical facilities, type of care and communication, the results of all the synergies is that the citizen/customer wants and recognizes the public service.According the values produced by t-Student test (t-Student = 28,012, p-value < 0,001) which was intended to see if the citizens are generally satisfied with the services provided in the PAC, it was possible to corroborate the research hypothesis, assuming a significance level of 5%. Thus it can be said that there are statistically significant evidence inferring that citizens are generally satisfied.For the analysis of Fig. 5 can be completed the answer to the first research hypothesis. The result referred to in the previous paragraph are the outcomes of the 4 components, especially those with higher averages, such as the component Products and Services and Global Image Organization that have a greater weight in satisfaction, which respectively have a mean of 4.29 and 4.26, with a SD of 0.77 and 0.82.

Figure 5. Summary of the Global Mean and Global Standard Deviation of Components.

Thus, all the analysis described above and displayed briefly in Fig. 5 allows us to confirm the first research hypothesis. Allows also to state that the optimum result of the satisfaction of PAC users shows that this study is indeed the result of a concentrated presence attendance model with an important place in the distribution of public service. As well as the distribution model focused public service that reveals itself a catalyst for administrative modernization at various levels: promoting transparency and efficiency of public action, citizen orientation, promotion of technological innovation and working methods and adopting new models of leadership.This research was guided by the purpose of reaching values of Global Satisfaction clearly identifiers from what the citizens think about the PAC, from these derive: positive perception of services, assertive behaviours, the notion of service quality and above all customer satisfaction and effectiveness.4.2. Analysis of Existing Relationship between Components and Global Satisfaction.In order to answer the second research hypothesis examined the correlation between the four major components that enabled investigation of citizens' satisfaction and ascertain the weight that each one contributes to the Global Satisfaction of citizens (Table 1). After the analysis of normality, where there was a violation of this assumption, it was necessary to resort to the Spearman correlation coefficient to measure the strength and direction of the relationship between the components, the closer to 1 are more correlated. All correlation coefficients are shown in Table 1 significant (p-value