services hard to findSome of the complaints that can be made on the municipality's websiteu Potholes u Street light turned off u Street light turned on during daytime u Burned or old fuse boxes u Accumulated garbage u Mosquitoes u Fallen trees u Encroachment of property u A shop having no license u A shop having no health card u Leaking of drinking water u Leaking of underground water u Workshop open in a residential district u Workers accommodated inside a workshop u No trash bins u Trash bins moved away from their location u Leaking of sanitation water u Ramshackle building u Collapsed building u Fallen signs u Request a cleaner u Overflowing sewage water u Request asphalting u A contractor blocking a street u Damaged carsJEDDAH – The municipality here provides a website, (www.jeddah.gov.sa), which it calls an electronic gateway “to information and municipality services” for the community. The Arabic version of the website went online in 2007 and a limited English version was established in May, 2009. According to Adel Mohammad Fakeih, Mayor of Jeddah, in his welcome letter on the English site, the municipality is striving “to improve the quality of our services and transform our internal culture – toward efficiency, transparency and fairness”. The website, he adds, “is a key tool for delivering this promise”. The municipality's electronic gateway provides 25 e-services, such as transaction and grant inquiries, and reporting complaints on a variety of municipal services, such as street cleaning, garbage collection, potholes, and street lights. However, the limited English version only provides transaction and grant inquiry services to English speaking residents. This means that if a resident who does not know Arabic wants to file a complaint regarding a pothole on his street or a street light that does not work, he has to have someone make the complaint for him on the Arabic website. In order to determine the efficiency and the quality of the e-services provided by the Arabic website, Saudi Gazette made a complaint about a street light in Al-Safa District that has not worked for a number of years and another complaint about potholes which have existed for months on a section of Prince Mit'eb Street. The municipality website provides detailed maps of the city and allows the user to pinpoint an exact street and residence location corresponding to his complaint. Using this facility, Saudi Gazette filed a complaint online regarding the street light and the potholes. The website then immediately provided a number for each complaint and sent a computer generated e-mail in which the municipality promised to deal with the problem as soon as possible. Two days later, using the complaint numbers, the electronic gateway was checked to see what action had been taken. The complaint about the potholes, according to the website, had been referred to the concerned department for action, and it was not clear when that action would be taken. However, the website informed Saudi Gazette that action had been taken on the street light and that it had been fixed. Furthermore, it stated categorically that the light had been fixed at 12:30 P.M. two days after the complaint was made. After receiving this efficient and transparent response, there was nothing left to do but to wait until the evening to verify the quality of the electronic services provided by the municipality. Unfortunately, that evening the street light was off just as it had been for years; so Saudi Gazette logged on to the electronic gateway and used the complaint number to report that no action had been taken despite the website's assertion that the light had been fixed. When two days passed without any further communication regarding the street light, Saudi Gazette called the municipality and explained the situation to Yassir Al-Shareef, the director of e-services. Al-Shareef said that his department only deals with the website and does not take any action itself. The e-services department receives complaints and refers them to the appropriate authorities which then report back to e-services when action has been taken. “But if someone has told you that your problem has been solved and it hasn't, you can contact customer services and they will contact the responsible department,” Al-Shareef said. “What is the use of having e-services then?” Saudi Gazette asked. “I know you may end up being referred from one department to another, and I understand how disturbing this can be,” Al-Shareef answered. When asked why the electronic gateway has an English section but residents can only make complaints on the Arabic website, Al-Shareef explained that most of the e-services staff cannot read or write English. He added that he did not think that there would be a fully functioning English website any time soon. He then asked for the street light complaint number and promised to do his best to provide better service. That was five days ago, nine days since the original complaint was filed and seven days since the electronic gateway asserted that the problem had been solved, and the street light in Al-Safa District which has not worked for years continues to sit in the dark.
