An analysis of the effectiveness of the strategies used to enhance service delivery in the public sector, a case of the Registrar General Department

Abstract

This research study was a case of the Registrar General Department and it sought to

evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies used to enhance service delivery in the

public sector. The research objectives were ,to identify the key strategies adopted by

The Registrar General’s department, in improving service delivery, to establish the

ideal benchmark requirements for the strategies used that is the use of information and

communication technology (ICT) and performance management to be effective in

enhancing service delivery, to establish areas of concern not addressed by the existing

strategies and the reasons why and to come up with recommendations designed for

feasible improvements in making full utilization of the strategies adopted. The study

was carried out under the assumption that the sampling method will represent the

entire total population of respondents and the methodology to be used to enable

accurate data collection. Descriptive research design was chosen to describe chosen

because the population was wide and varied across the employees at the Registrar

General Department as well as the citizens who had been served and those seeking

services. Selltiz et al (1989) points out that the descriptive survey method can be used

to collect information from the whole cross section of the population. Primary data

was collected using questionnaires. The population for this research consist of

managers, processing officers at the registrar general department and citizens of

Zimbabwe who are approximately 12600 billion. For sample size, the researcher came

up with a total of (68) respondents which comprised of (35) customers (3) supervisors

and (30) employees. Stratified random sampling and purposive sampling techniques

were used for data collection and the data was presented using tables as these made it

easier to express, summarize and present the findings The findings indicated that vast

efforts were being done by The Registrar General department in implementing Results

Based Management system and that was the main variable which they want to adopt

in order to improve on their services. The researcher then concluded that service

delivery at the Registrar General has improved from the past years but is still not

satisfactory and effective to the customers and the reason for this being the variables

which enhance service delivery are not well implemented. The service delivery

implementation of the Registrar department is concentrating much on implementing

the ZimAsset and they are based on using the Results Based Management system and

it is their priority. In house Training and development is being done at the Registrar

General Department although mostly technical skills being covered than those of

customer care. Customers indicated that the employees are rude and not helpful. Some

customers accuse the employees to be corrupt and not transparent in the way they do

their job. The Results Based Management is being used as the performance

management system. Most employees to date now understand the system and are now

working in conjunction with the Zim Asset strategies. The use of compensation and

benefits to improve service delivery is being done except that the government is in

debt and because of the current economy that Zimbabwe is in it is difficult to use

financial incentives thus the Registrar General department has to focus on other

methods that are crucial.