“ASAN xidmət” - not everything is so easy

Baku/14.12.21/Turan: On July 13, 2012, by the decree of President Ilham Aliyev, “ASAN xidmət” (Easy service) centers were established under the State Agency for Citizens Service and Social Innovation under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Presented as a new and modern model, “ASAN xidmət” should serve to form a new approach in the activities of civil servants aimed at ensuring civic satisfaction in relation to the population, moving to a qualitatively new level of relations between civil servants and citizens in the country.

According to the decree, the activities of the centers are based on the principles of efficiency, transparency, politeness, responsibility and convenience.

For financial support of measures for the development of e-government and the transition to digital government from the state budget for 2021, the State Agency for Services to Citizens and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan has been allocated 10 million manat.

According to the State Agency for Citizens Service and Social Innovation, there are currently 6 centers operating in Baku, and 21 across the country. “Over eight  years and 9 months, 7 648 738 citizens have applied to the "ASAN xidmət" centers. The total number of applications amounted to 48,745,227. According to the surveys, the coefficient of satisfaction of citizens with services is 99.5 percent”.

The ministry noted that one of the basic principles of “ASAN xidmət” is transparency. “In 2020, 289 organizations, including 30 central and 79 local executive authorities, 113 judicial authorities, 8 public legal entities, 47 legal entities, 3 universities, 9 payment service providers, paid 670 services for fines, taxes, fees, utilities, leasing, loans, payment for services and other areas, along with mobile applications and terminals of the “ASAN payment” system, banks integrated into the system, 1489 post offices, all other payment portals and terminals. In the direction of financial turnover during 2020, the total turnover through the system amounted to 67,967,519.06 manats, including 1,470,949 payments. ”

Economist Nazim Baidamirli said that he himself received information from various structures through “ASAN xidmət” several times. “Issuance of these certificates within 10 days was free, and I agreed to provide documents during this time. But I was told about the need to facilitate this process. The aim of  simplification is to charge more service fees. This is the creation of good conditions for doing business at the expense of the state."

He believes that citizens should comfortably receive these services from government agencies. “Then there was no need to create “ASAN xidmət”. Simply, in accordance with the Law "On the budgetary system," off-budget revenues of budgetary organizations were accumulated in one Fund and spent on its various needs. There were ineffective expenditures. To get rid of this, such a model was invented. In the current situation, “ASAN xidmət” revenues are formed by accelerating work and payment for services for good service, except for the state fee. These services are much higher than the fees."

The expert noted that all over the world such services should be provided by the private sector. “Of course, there are services such as, for example, the issuance of certificates and passports, which must be carried out by the state. But there are others services  in which private company should  be involved. In this case, "ASAN xidmət” has become a growing source of government revenue."

The economist stressed that the services provided in “ASAN xidmət” are actually provided by other state structures. “That is, state bodies send their employees to “ASAN xidmət”, and they provide services there, and even if the organizer is “ASAN xidmət”, state bodies still provide this service. There is already a double leadership here. In this case, why not to simplify these services in the state bodies themselves? Why was it necessary to spend so much additional money? In general, it is impossible to have transparency in a separate structure in a country where there is no financial transparency." –0--