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App allows citizens to file complaints, send suggestions on public institutions

By Renad Aljadid - Jun 22,2018 - Last updated at Jun 22,2018

AMMAN — The Ministry of Public Sector Development is seeking to foster communication with the public by “intensifying” its social media promotion of the e-government application “At Your Service”, which allows people to send suggestions or to file complaints against the country’s public institutions, according to a ministry official.

“The phone application serves not only citizens, but also tourists and residents who can send their suggestions and complaints from any location around the Kingdom or even outside of the Kingdom,” Deafallah Oleimat, director of the government services improvement and simplifying procedures directorate at the ministry, told The Jordan Times on Thursday.

Each individual can create an account linked with their national number or with the passport number for non-Jordanians and users can attach photos and videos with their complaints while also being able to refrain from disclosing their identity, Oleimat explained.

“The application is connected with all public institutions, with 95 liaison officers in the ministry being responsible for receiving and addressing the complaints, as well as sending notifications to all the parties involved to track the status of the application,” said the ministry official, adding “there is an auto-escalation system, which sends the complaint to the higher official with no human intervention in cases when no action has been taken to handle the issue within 48 hours”. 

Launched in August 2017, the application has recorded some 12,000 downloads so far, with an average of 700 to 800 complaints received per month, said Belal Al Hindi, director of the complaints management unit at the ministry. 

Asked about the reason behind the “relatively low number” of downloads; Hindi explained that “some individual practices of public employees in dealing with complaints might have broken the trust between the citizens and the public institutions”.

“We are now seeking to bridge this gap again and build trust with the people by providing them with advanced and up-to-date means of communication that meets their demands and solves their problems,” he pledged. 

Hindi said that the ministry earlier launched several promotions and marketing campaigns on TV, radio, e-mail, roll-ups, printed brochures, as well as text messages which were sent to around 500,000 people. “We are now seeking to intensify our activity on social media so as to reach a wider audience,” he noted.

Maisa Zoubi, 22, welcomed the idea but voiced hopes to see it being “better marketed”. 

“Many people give up on filing a complaint due to the long and complicated process that the traditional method requires, let alone the difficulty, especially for females, to commute to the headquarters of the public institution just to file their complaints,” Zoubi said.

“It is great that now, with a click from our houses, we can share our concerns and communicate closely with the government,” she added.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Omar Razzaz vowed “open communication” with the public and the reconsideration of “unfair” legislation through an online platform that he said will be announced in the coming week.

“You will see this platform coming to life in less than 100 days as we want all citizens to be part of the decision-making process and contribute with their ideas and suggestions,” Razzaz stated.

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