Discussion with a Municipal Commissioner

? Spending or Saving??

? Piling files or fixing a broken road??

? Fixing the broken road or purchasing a software??

Recently I visited a leading local government authority in the Western Province to meet the Municipal commissioner (MC) to brief about the ManKiwwa (Tellit) solution (I have visited them earlier, but this person is new to the office)?

?Briefed about the solution, and MC was impressed and interested. Then inquired about the authorities we are actively working in. Then I informed the list.?

MC - immediately called the Gampaha Municipal Commissioner and asked about the solutions and our service right in front of me. With the responses from the conversation, I knew the Gampaha Municipal Commissioner gave a good recommendation. ?

Recommendation matter is sorted.?

MC - Then inquired about the financial cost to implement the solution in this specific authority area. ?

Me - Told the cost for implementation. ?

MC - said the price is too high ?

Me - No it is not. (It is just 0.0015% of their 2019 annual budgeted expense.) This is a very reasonable price for all inclusive.?

MC – No sir, we can concrete a road from this value?

Me – Is fixing roads the only service you provide from the council to the citizens ?

MC – No No, we provide more service, but this amount is equaling to that cost?

Me – I took a little bit of time and briefly explained the impactful change with results we bring in with the solution.?

Some may try to do it over a call, most instances the respective officer may not be in the office. In the current context 99% of the citizens must visit any local government authority to voice a public issue or grievance. ?

?This is how ManKiwwa (Tellit) helps/saves:?

For Citizens: -?

1. Citizens are empowered to download the ManKiwwa app free of charge and report ANYTHING, ANYTIME, from ANYWHERE related to the local government authority as and when they see. It takes only 5 seconds; we assume it takes 30 seconds. Even if it takes 30 secs the time is saved. The time citizens spend visiting the authority, the cost for traveling/ fuel cost is SAVED.?

2. The time spent in the queue until your turn comes to reach the officer concern is SAVED.?

3. The paper that needs to provide a request letter or form is SAVED.?

4. The time you have spent all over visiting the authorities when there is no response from them is SAVED.?

For Authority: -?

1. REDUCTION in citizens standing in long queues to meet the Public Complaints Officer.?

2. REDUCE?the number of citizens walking into the council on the public day.?

3. The complaint received should be recorded in a book and the document should be filed, which also takes some time. The time spent recording and filing is SAVED, and the box file usage is REDUCED. ?

4. The?Public Complaints Officer?takes a copy of the document and hands over the complaint to the Head of the subject?department. Then the time spent on taking the copies and handing it over to the head of the department is SAVED.?

5. The time taken by the head of the department to hand over the complaint & the document to the officer concerned who is responsible for inspecting and fixing is SAVED. ?

6. It is difficult for the Public Complaints Officer and the Head of the Department to sort through the books where all the complaints have been recorded and it takes time to sort/ filter out the complaints received, the complaints resolved, and the solutions taken. The time taken to manage the reported complaints is SAVED.?

7. Before attending to the public issue reported, the officer makes a call to the citizen who made the complaint and inquiries about the issue and its location. The time spent on that call and the money spent on the phone call is SAVED.?

8. Every month, at least 2-3 weeks are spent preparing summarized reports to be submitted to the Head of the organization, Provincial Council or?Ministry of Local Government. The council does not have to prepare and submit the reports as the higher authorities are provided with dashboards to generate these reports and analyze data. The time spent on preparing these statements is SAVED. The time spent on sending the documents and the money spent on postage is SAVED.?

9. At the end of the year, data from this year and previous years can be quickly analyzed to plan / budget for the following year. Time spent on going through manual records is SAVED.?

10. Heads of departments and Heads of organizations can study the effectiveness of the organization, analyze data to identify frequent issues reported in the area and many other things through the summarized data analysis panel. VALUE addition created; time SAVED.?

?

Me - There's more I can list out, but highlighted the above to MC. Asked if it is simple as fixing a road.?

?MC – OK, let’s do this?

Let see if they fix the roads and introduce the solution or introduce solution and fix the roads.?

?Apparently they must do both simultaneously as there will be an issue report from the ManKiwwa app about the broken road. ???

Happy New Year to you all with many hopes for 2023.