Mini Courses of GS IV: Case Studies

Mini Courses of Ethics, Integrity, Attitude, Aptitude and case studies for IAS Mains Examination

:: CASE STUDIES ::

WHAT IS A CASE STUDY? EXPLAIN THE CASE METHOD AS A LEARNING TOOL.

A case study isa description of an actual administrative situation involving a decision to be made or a problem to be solved. It can a real situation that actually happened just as described, or portions have been disguised for reasons of privacy. Most case studies are written in such a way that the reader takes the place of the manager whose responsibility is to make decisions to help solve the problem. In almost all case studies, a decision must be made, although that decision might be to leave the situation as it is and do nothing.

CASE STUDY-1

What’s Ailing Public Services?

A recent Centre for Media Studies (CMS) study shows that a majority of citizens are not satisued with the delivery of public services. In seven out of the 11 departments covered the study, less than one-third of the citizens are satisffed with the services delivered. In fact, in most need-based services such as the police, judiciary and municipalities, (which enjoy a greater discretion and power), not even 20 per cent of the households are satisfied with their services. Even in essential services such as the PDS, hospitals, and electricity and water supplies, a mere 30-40 per cent of the households are happy with the services....
The study brings out that there are hardly any effective complaint redressal systems in place in most departments. In most cases, citizens are not even aware that such systems exist and departments make no effort to educate them. Even those who are aware have little confidence in them.

CASE STUDY-2

NEED FOR ETHICAL CODE

Senator Fulbright identified a problem of government employees who committed ethical lapses not amounting to criminal conduct. He asked-What should be done about men who do not directly and blatantly sell the favors of their offices for money and so place themselves within the penalties of the law? How do we deal with those who, under the guise of friendship, accept favors, which offend the spirit of the law but do not violate its letter?

CASE STUDY-3

AN EXTRACT FROM THE CODE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE OF SPAIN

Nonetheless, at the present juncture, it is necessary for public ‘ authorities to offer citizens an undertaking that all the senior offices must satisfy not only the obligations laid down by law, but, in addition, their conduct must be inspired and be guided by principles of ethics and good conduct which have not yet been expressly stated in the regulations -although they are no doubt implicit - and which offer a code of good governance.... First. Basic principles — Members of the Government and the senior officers of the General State Administration shall carry out their activities in accordance with the Constitution and the rest of the legal system, following the following principles of ethics and good conduct developed in this Code : objectivity, integrity, neutrality, responsibility, credibility, impartiality, confidentiality, dedication to public service, transparency, exemplary conduct, austerity, accessibility, efficiency, honesty and promotion of the cultural and environmental environment and of equality between the sexes....

CASE STUDY-4:

THE NEED FOR A SERIOUS FRAUDS OFFICE

Investigations into the recent stock market ‘scam’ have underscored the limitations of a fragmented approach in our enforcement machinery. Though a number of agencies investigated the highly publicised fraud, none really got the holistic picture of what really happened. The chances of effectively punishing the fraudsters, in such a situation, are very slim.

CASE STUDY-5

THE ICAC OF HONG KONG

The ICAC has taken the anti-corruption message to every corner of the community in a complex operation which has called for the skilful use of every possible avenue open to it. Mass media has been the most effective channel of spreading the anti-corruption message. Every year, the ICAC produces a series of radio and television advertisements to keep the issue of corruption in the forefront of public consciousness.

The ICAC also produces a television drama series called the ‘ICAC Investigators’, telecast on local television stations. Based on real cases, the series educates the community about corruption by depicting how investigators of the ICAC expose and punish corruption.

CASE STUDY-6

MEXICAN WOMAN WINS 22,000 DOLLARS FOR USELESS RED TAPE

Mexico City (AFP) - A Mexican woman who needs to collect seven signatures every two weeks to obtain medicine for her sick son won a government competition for the most useless bureaucratic procedure. Cecilia Velazquez received a check for 300,000 (22,000 dollars) from President Felipe Calderon after winning the competition to identify the worst red tape in the notoriously bureaucratic country.

CASE STUDY-7

SINGLE WINDOW MULTI CHANNEL GOVERNMENT (SWMCG) -GERMANY

SWMCG had its origins in the mid-80s at trie municipal level in Germany with a view to create ‘one-stop shopping’, agencies. Presently, the ‘multi-channel’ approach integrates the physical access and web-based access systems and offers single window service delivery through the following channels :

1. Municipal Internet Portal - provides comprehensive information, downloads and services
2. Call Centers - provide information, simple services and appointments
3. Citizen Sarvice Centres (CSCs) - provide single window facility for delivering services pertaining to registrations, ID cards, passports, driving licences and crime register attestations. A typical CSC caters to about 100,000 populations.

CASE STUDY-13

WINDOW OF HOPE

The Mayurbhanj District Administration (Orissa) realized that from the point of view of Differentially-abled Persons (DAPs), service delivery is extremely complex, costly and time taking.

The District Administration launched an initiative called ‘Window of Hope’ with the following innovations :

A Single Window System with decentralization of service delivery at the block level
Re-engineering of complex government processes to suit the needs of the DAPs
All facilities provided free of cost at a ‘camp’ site to attract the poorest of the poor.
Mobilisation of funds through convergence and Public -Private Partnerships to ensure 100% follow-up action.

CASE STUDY-14

JUSTICE DELAYED

Facts, in brief are that the Complainant, Mr. Bhausaheb Devram Patil has u led complaint, No. S. R. 92 of 1993, against Kishore D. Patil, alleging deficiency in service on his part in supplying the defective colour television, e District Forum vide its order dated 30.9.1994 directed the Opposite Party to repair the TV. set or refund its price.

As the order was not complied, the Complainant u led an Execution Petition, M.P . No. 28 of 1996. before the District Forum. In that Execution Petition the District Forum by order dated 20.8.1998 sentenced the Opposite Party to undergo simple imprisonment for three months and to pay penalty of Rs. 5,000/-.

CASE STUDY-15

JAANKARI - RTI FACILITATION ON PHONE

Bihar’s unique attempt to accept Right to Information (RTI) applications through phone calls (‘Jaankari’ project) has been selected for the Qrst prize for ‘outstanding performance in citizen centric service delivery’ at the National Awards for e-Governance (2008-09).

Under this facility, anyone can make a phone call at the speciu ed number (a call centre) and the call centre person will record all the details.The charges for making the RTI application are included in the phone call charges.

CASE STUDY-16

INFORMATION CONSOLIDATION FOR EFFICIENCY (ICE): RESOURCE PLANNING IN ONGC

The objective of the ICE project is to optimize and standard the business processes to enable availability of information on real time basis; and eliminate duplication of activities to increase efficiency and transparency.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) realigned its business processes to bring all the legacy systems under a common Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) also known as Information Consolidation for Efficiency (ICE).

Earlier, the ONGC monitored its activities on a daily, monthly, quarterly and annual basis at both work center and corporate levels This involved a comprehensive and an exhaustive process exercised in a manual manner. In absence of any integrated online data system, there was lack of co-ordination and no time management between the activity period and data availability. This resulted constraints in logical decision making as well. Post implementation of ICE yielded better results including optimization and standardization of business process, higher productivity, reduction of cost, strengthening efficiency thereby increasing customer service and satisfaction.