One-stop service center disappoints the public

One-stop service center disappoints the public

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The idea behind the establishment of a one-stop document
service center was to provide better and faster service for
Jakartans processing official documents.

But the early results of the pilot project at the North
Jakarta mayoralty office on Jl. Yos Sudarso, which began on March
6, have so far been less than satisfying.

Despite the ambitious goal of winning an ISO 9001 certificate
of quality, North Jakarta Mayor Soebagio admitted the center was
teeming with middlemen.

One Jakartan, the 40-year-old Asmaradi, a resident of Semper,
was vocal about his dissatisfaction with the center after having
to wait for more than five hours to check on the authenticity of
his land certificate.

"What's the difference (from the old system)? I was expecting
quicker and better service from the officials at the center. I
could have gone to the mayoralty land agency office for the same
service," complained the father of two, who came to the document
center at the recommendation of staff at the land agency office.

Two midwives who came to the center to extend their
operational permit were similarly upset with the level of service
they received.

"We usually process the permit at the mayoralty health agency
office in 30 minutes. We were recommended by the agency to come
here. They said we would get better service.

"But we prefer processing the permit at the agency as we had
to wait for more than two hours here," said the midwives.

There are 11 counters at the center, dealing with documents
related to mayoralty planning; construction; industry and trade;
population and civil records; burial; mayoralty treasury;
mayoralty remuneration agent; property taxes; health services;
and labor and transmigration.

Discussing the problem of middlemen at the center, Mayor
Soebagio could only say: "We will eliminate the middlemen by
improving the services of the center. With good service and
comfort, we believe the public will not need the middlemen to
process their documents."

The mayoralty has spent Rp 45 million (US$4,500) training the
counter staff and providing them with uniforms.

The center was officially opened by Governor Sutiyoso on
Tuesday. In remarks at the opening, the governor said he hoped
other mayoralties would follow the lead of North Jakarta and set
up similar centers.