Speech

UNDP Albania Resident Representative

Limya Eltayeb

Inauguration of municipal One Stop Shop

Municipality of Permet

Honorable Mayor Shupuli,

Dear citizens of Permet Municipality

Honorable Representatives from the Government of Albania

Ambassador Cutillo

Dear partners and guests

I am exceptionally pleased to take part in the festivities of the Summer Day in Permet, as a guest but more so by representing UNDP Albania and its contribution to the development of Permet area and the modernization of the services the municipality of Permet offers to its citizens.

In the last couple of years, UNDP Albania, in close collaboration with and the direct support of the EU, the Governments of Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland and USAID, is helping the Albanian municipalities to improve their work in many aspects, focusing on improving the quality of municipal services and strengthening municipal transparency and accountability so that citizens have better opportunities to judge on their municipality performance and have a stronger say in decision-making.

In the area of service improvement, the major engagement of UNDP assistance is the support for opening of "one-stop shop" offices for the provision of administrative services in 49 municipalities of Albania.

I am pleased that, on the present occasion of Summer Day festivities, we inaugurate today the opening of the one-stop shop office for the municipality of Permet. The municipality of Permet is the eighth municipality where this new system is put in place and operational with the assistance of UNDP.

I am also pleased to declare this achievement in the presence of Minister Cuci, who was the key promoter of this initiative in his former function as Minister State for Local Issues.

Let me emphasize that service delivery is a core function of local government to the benefit of its citizens and businesses.

The One Stop Shop is a response to the challenge of providing quality services, in that the concentration of different services in one place would be time-saving and efficient for the citizen or business, who would spare the inconvenience of moving to different places and at the same time it would be cost-effective for the service provider.

For many services the delivery time is estimated to be reduced up to 50% while status of the requests will be easily checked from the front desk officers.

At the same time, internal municipal paperwork will be reduced due to internal electronic communication, unnecessary bureaucratic layers will be eliminated, and performance of municipal staff and departments can be better monitored.

The opening of the one stop shop office today is a result of expert work, excellent collaboration with the municipality and training of several municipal employees on using the system.

The new system represents a change in the work culture that requires determination and commitment of municipality to provide services through it and citizens' awareness on their benefit from the system.

Nevertheless, I should also highlight that the municipality of Permet, as many other municipalities of Albania, did not have the optimal conditions for adopting the one stop shop system, lacking sufficient IT equipment and appropriate physical office space and internet connection in the central municipality and especially for the administrative units.

I take the opportunity to thank in particular the Italian Cooperation and CESVI, who secured the necessary computers, printers and other IT equipment in the shortest delays and made it possible to open the one-stop-shop in Permet municipality today.

In the near future, the Municipality should make further efforts to ensure the functionality of the system in all administrative units, which requires additional IT equipment, acceptable internet connectivity, decent offices and the necessary minimal staff.

The new system represents a change in the work culture that requires determination and commitment of municipality to provide services through it and citizens' awareness on their benefit from the system.

In concluding, let me once again thank all government national and local partners, as well as the development partners and especially the municipality of Permet, which has supported the process in full and is now ready to offer its citizens more modern and quality services.