Citizen Report Card System - CiReCa - Advantages and Limitations

Improves public accountability; Helps to determine user perceptions on the quality, efficiency and adequacy for the various public services that are funded by taxpayers; By aggregating “opinions” (i.e. qualitative information) from the citizens a higher degree of objectivity is attained (quantitative information); A simple indicator is produced that measures overall satisfaction and perceived levels of corruption; Allows citizens’ to indicate to the service providers their opinions about the performance of the service providers and thus exert pressure for change.

The method requires a sound understanding of socio-political context and structure of public finances in the country; A certain technical level of competence is required in order to both undertake the survey and assess the results; this is not something that the citizens can do on their own; Where the media is controlled and censored it may not be so easy for the citizens to use the media to make public the results of the exercise; There is a danger that the method is used as a one-off exercise since it is often difficult to institutionalize the practice.