Strengthening Service Delivery with ICT based Monitoring and Reporting Systems: The CSIR’s Municipal Services Corrective Action Request and Report System (CARRS)

Abstract

In the advent of the democratic dispensation, government crafted and implemented new strategies and programmes that would ensure that everyone had equal access to basic services. However, many studies show that there are still significant gaps and challenges in the delivery of some basic services to the poor. To address some of these challenges, government has in the recent years crafted the National Development Plan (NDP), supported by strategies such as the Back to Basics (B2B), which put some emphasis on creating platforms through which municipal councils could engage with citizens. In a bid to strengthen the Back to Basics strategy, the CSIR has developed the Corrective Action Request and Report System (CARRS), which is an incident management and an ICT workflow system that provides a platform through which communities can report service delivery and infrastructure failure issues to municipal councils. The system is being piloted with a focus on water services in selected communities in eight of the priority districts. Findings of the pilot indicate a warm reception of the CARRS system by municipal councils and communities in the pilot sites, with more incidents being reported and managed, thus intuitively translating to an improvement in the delivery and quality of basic services.