The delivery of services to the citizens is a daily obligation of the municipal administrations. The leadership of the municipality of Mezdra believes that this process must meet the modern high requirements on the quality of the services delivered. Besides the growing needs of the citizens for timely services and for various administrative documents, there are also growing needs with regard to their requirements to the administration and to the performance of the service units. By taking this into consideration and viewing it through the prism of the upcoming changes in the administrative sector arising from Bulgaria s EU accession, it becomes clear that improving the quality of service delivery is one of the most important aspects of local government.

In 2002 the Municipality of Mezdra made a step towards improving the quality of service delivery and enhancing citizens access to municipal services by establishing a municipal Citizen Information Center (CIC).

The Client 's Charter and the service standards were enacted on May 31, 2005. The Charter is available to CIC s clients through a special brochure and is posted in the Citizen Information Center. The Charter is not legally binding document but its existence allows the clients to understand the opportunities for better interaction with the municipal administration and thus defend their interests more effectively. The purpose of the Charter is to improve the access to administrative services and to encourage service delivery quality improvement. The Charter describes in detail all 122 municipal services. To make it easier for the clients, this is done for each of the desks at the Citizen Information Center, with the inclusion of contact information for the respective municipal employee.

The Charter describes the complaint handling procedures and procedures for the provision of information by the municipal administration. It also includes reaction timelines for the respective documents and the names of the municipal officials responsible.

The most important aspect of the Administrative Service Standards is the attitude to the clients defined by the motto The People are the Municipality. The standards are based on the belief that the delivery of information to the clients and communication with the, as well as the expansion of the customer relations channels, are priorities for administrative staff .

The effect from the adoption of the Client s Charter and the Administrative Service Standards by the Municipality of Mezdra became obvious immediately after the end of the promotional campaign that was organized to present the document to the public. The changes include improved service delivery and better interaction between service providers and service recipients. Survey cards used to generate feedback indicate that the degree of customer satisfaction has increased significantly and the verbal requests for different procedures and services have decreased. The CIC staff state that the clients are now better informed about the administrative process, timelines and procedures, which further enhances service delivery.

On the other hand, the Charter has a positive effect on the attitude of the administrative staff to the citizens. The enactment of the service standards resulted in treating the users of administrative services most of all like clients that make the administration s existence possible.