Citizen services and the front counter
Give every person one place to get any public service, with published requirements, fee and deadline, and someone independent to complain to.
Everything for this step
- Field guide
- Institutions: what to found, and how to run them → 32 sections
- Builds
- None yet.
- Reference sheets
- None.
- Track
- Public works and administration, level 5 of 6 · next: Audit, statistics and the published number
Why this matters
A citizen meets the state at a counter: registering a birth, transferring land, getting a licence, claiming a benefit. When that means five offices, documents demanded at random, unstated fees and no deadline, people pay middlemen or bribes, or do without — and the registers lose their records and the institutions their trust at the same time. A good front counter is cheap, and the methods are well tested: one front door, a published catalogue, a deadline for every decision, and never asking for something the government already holds.
The shape of it
- Catalogue every service with eligibility, documents, fee, deadline and complaints route, and demand nothing that is not listed.
- Put many departments' counters behind one front door, or a mobile counter on a fixed round.
- Ask once: never demand what a register already holds, and let one registration of a birth or death reach every department.
- Set a deadline for every decision, with tacit approval for low-risk cases when it passes.
- Write plain forms and test them on the people who will use them.
- Post the fees, take payment only at a cashier, and receipt every payment.
- Measure and publish waiting times, on-time decisions and complaints, and keep the counter open as services move online.
Doing it, step by step
The summary above says what has to happen. This says how, with the numbers that decide whether it works.
1 · Catalogue every service
List every service any department gives the public. For each, publish one page: what it is; who may apply; every document required; the fee; the deadline for a decision; where to apply; who to complain to. Nothing that is not on the page may be demanded.
Number the services and keep the catalogue at every counter and, later, online. Start with the ten most used — typically births and deaths, identity documents, land transfers, company registration, licences and permits, and benefits.
2 · One front door
Bring many departments' counters under one roof, behind one reception that sends each visitor to the right desk. São Paulo's Poupatempo centres, opened from 1997, issue identity cards, driving licences, criminal-record certificates and other documents in one building, as in the photograph.
Where a building per town is too much, a single clerk trained in the commonest services, or a mobile counter on a published weekly round, brings the front door to the villages.
3 · Ask once, tell once
Never ask a person for information the government already holds. If the register has the birth, the school does not need a certificate; if the land is registered, the tax office does not need the deed. Departments share the record directly, with the person's knowledge, and every access is logged — the once-only principle the EU's governments committed to in the Tallinn Declaration of 2017.
For life events, tell once: one registration of a death notifies every department that needs to know — pensions, tax, the registers, the health authority — as the UK's Tell Us Once service has done since 2011.
4 · A deadline for every decision
Each catalogue page states how long a decision takes: the same day for a certificate, days for a licence, weeks for a building permit. When a deadline passes:
- Low-risk applications are treated as granted — tacit approval, as the EU Services Directive (2006) provides.
- Others go straight to a supervisor, who decides within a short second deadline and records why the first was missed.
Publish each month the share of decisions made on time, for every service. A deadline nobody measures is a suggestion.
5 · Plain forms, tested on the people who use them
Write every form in plain language that a school leaver can follow, in the languages spoken locally. Test each new form on at least 10 real applicants before it is used, and rewrite every question one of them gets wrong.
Ask only for what will be used: every field names the decision it informs, the rule from the census. Pre-fill what the registers already hold, so the person checks rather than writes.
6 · Fees on the wall, a receipt for everything
Post every fee at the counter. Take payment only at a cashier, never from the official who decides, and give a numbered receipt for every payment. Reduce or waive fees for those who cannot pay, by a published rule.
An unpublished fee is where informal payment starts. Officials wear name badges; every decision on a file names the official who made it; and a sign at every counter says where to report a demand for payment — the integrity route.
7 · Measure the wait, and publish it
Give each visitor a numbered ticket and record the time of arrival, call and finish. Publish monthly for each centre: median and longest wait, share served on the first visit, share decided on time, and complaints received and resolved.
Ask a sample of visitors one or two questions as they leave — was the matter done, and how long did it take? Each quarter, send unannounced test applicants through the commonest services, and publish what they found.
8 · Answer complaints, and keep the counter open
Answer every complaint in writing within 10 working days: what happened, whether it was wrong, and what will change. A person still not satisfied goes to the ombudsman, independent of every department and free of charge.
Keep every channel open. When services move online, the counter stays, with staff to help people who lack access or skill. A front door that some people cannot use is not a front door.