Following the latest session of the Council for the Modernisation of Public Policies, François Baroin, the French Minister for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform presented on 5 July 2010 the new main lines of action for the improvement of the delivery of public services.

Firstly, a barometer measuring the satisfaction of the public services users will be published, so as to enhance transparency and the quality of the services provided. The new tool has been established based on the priority needs of citizens, with a limited number of flagship indicators. The objective is to regularly update the users on the evolution of service quality - assessment of attention to customers, handling of procedures and management of user complaints, based on the indicators and user satisfaction surveys.

Moreover, the management of user complaints will rely on a new system targeted at public entities and structured around four levels of maturity. In this light, the launch of an eComplaint service accessible via the personalised eGovernment portal 'Mon.Service-Public.fr' will ease the lodging of complaints.

The Minister announced 15 new simplification measures oriented towards the priority needs of the users. These measures follow the 15 ones that were launched on 19 October 2009 and they are part of a three-year programme consisting of 100 measures.

On the same occasion, the Minister introduced two major works in progress:  

• The new version of 'Mon.Service-Public.fr' - The personalised eGovernment portal has a fully revamped interface intended not only to facilitate the users' access to their personal online account as well as the confidential storage space, but also to ease the follow-up of procedures and to provide customised information. The July 2010 statistics reveal that the portal has 750 000 registered members and 20 000 daily visits. With about 15 partners, the portal provides access to almost all the public services of the social sector. The filing of tax returns is planned to be made available on the portal at the beginning of 2011.
•  A new smartphone application for travelers - a service delivered by the French Customs, it provides complete information on the quantity of goods that travelers are allowed to take to France along with details on the conditions for bringing animals, cars and medicines on the national territory when coming back from foreign countries (EU Member States and the rest of the world). The service has been already accessible on one type of smartphone but it will be made available to all existing smartphones by September 2010.

 

Further information: 

• Original news article - State Modernisation Portal - Directorate-General for State Modernisation (in French)
• Mon.Service-Public.fr (in French)