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Success Story

Photo: Communis Agency

A resident receives a birth certificate in a matter of minutes, rather than days, at the new Citizen Service Center in Gorazde, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“I finished everything in six minutes. It’s a rarity to find such fast service,” Radomir Macar, a retired man from Sokolac, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

When Radomir Macar, a pensioner from Sokolac, needed documents to prove his citizenship, he never expected the process would be so quick. “Today has been great,” he said. “I finished everything in six minutes. It’s a rarity to find such fast service.”

The service was provided by Gorazde’s new Citizen Service Center, also known as a “One Stop Shop.” These centers have dramatically reduced waiting times for citizens by consolidating customer service for the entire municipality at one location.

“People used to have to traipse from the ground floor to the third floor to the second floor... Now they can complete their business in one place in just a few minutes. That makes citizens feel they are worth something,” said Gorazde’s mayor, Mustafa Kurtovic.

Gorazde’s One Stop Shop is part of a $20 million project to improve government accountability that USAID is running in partnership with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The project is helping improve the services of 40 local governments throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In Gorazde, over 7,000 people pass through the One Stop Shop each month. Of those, 1,200 file requests. Therefore, efficiency is a top priority. For example, every employee has access to a document tracking system that shows the exact status of every request filed. With this system in place, residents do not have to seek out the person who originally took their request.

When Gorazde’s Cantonal TV conducted a survey on citizens’ opinions about the One Stop Shop, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. That’s good news for everyone — residents who need documents, businesses that seek permits, and the local governments who supply the documents.

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