Proactive Disclosure of Information, Service Delivery and Citizen Satisfaction: A Study of Dhaka South City Corporation

Abstract

Local government bodies, particularly city corporations in Bangladesh are responsible for providing a range of services that increased faster with the speed of population growth in urban areas. To provide the better service, government has enacted the Right to Information Act to disclose information proactively. Employing qualitative and quantitative approaches, this study attempts to examine the citizen satisfaction of Dhaka South City Corporation in Bangladesh relating to the proactive disclosure and promoting accountability. The study found that certain sections of laws were disseminated; officials were reluctant to disclose information to citizen; only 4 percent of the citizens admitted they knew about the activities of the corporation in maintenance of electricity, gas or water connection or tax collection, not the development activities; the corporation does not have provision for and require the local branch offices to prepare and propose a budget locally; about 96 percent of the respondents knew nothing about the budget of the City Corporation; and they were not satisfied due to lack of information what the corporation does and would do in the areas.