Building permits for villas within 5 days instead of 30 days

Mrs. Fayqa Ashkanani, Director of Quality Department in the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning has emphasized that the Ministry is currently working on preparing a comprehensive manual of its services, which will be available soon to the public through the website of the Ministry serving as reference for applicants to know requirements for services and necessary procedures. Mrs. Ashkanani, in an interview with Al-Arab newspaper, has also emphasized that the manual is under final approval.

In addition, Mrs. Ashkanani also noted that Quality Department is strive to develop procedures and consolidated forms for control and inspection through preparing reference manuals for such purpose, as preliminary phase for development of the control process until “automation” of control and inspection processes through handheld devices (digital assistants) to arrest and film contraventions and provide positioning services, in collaboration with the Information Systems Department.

Moreover, Mrs. Ashkanani stated that development of villas permits procedures is under way, where customers will be able to obtain approval on permits no more than five days, including architectural approval and the approval from other service-providers like (Kahramaa “Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation”, Ashghal, Civil Defense, and Qtel), instead of more than 30 days processing before. Following is the transcript of the interview:

Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning is one of the few governmental organizations interested in quality matters, represented in introduction of Quality Department under your supervision. Beside this, what are the necessities for introduction of quality departments in official governmental organizations?

- Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning is a service organization provides several and various services on the level of the State of Qatar. Based on this fact, H.E. Sheikh Abdul-rahman bin Khalifa Al Thani, Minister of Municipality and Urban Planning paid an eye of consideration and care to the quality of services provided for Public. Firstly, H.E. the Minister applied for the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers to approve Quality Department in the Organizational Structure of the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, motivated with the belief in the necessity to have organizational entity working to consolidate the basics of quality, and most significantly satisfaction of customers’ needs, on permanent basis.

The commitment of the Higher Management represented in H.E. the Minister and Ministry Officials to the quality of services is highly significant through collaborative work for satisfaction of all needs and expectations of customers, in addition to sustainable development and enhancement of services.

Quality is joint responsibility, rather than accountable to independent department or section.

In the Ministry, we believe that quality of services requires proper and accurate provision of services within the minimum time span for achievement of the best level of customer satisfaction. This process consider customer as the core of development process. The Ministry keeps in touch with customers, comprehends their needs and notes through periodical monitoring and follow up to their satisfaction, to act as necessary to enhance strengths and remedy weaknesses.

The Ministry strives to adapt with Qatar National vision 2030 through sustainable development of services and procedures. The Ministry reviews the best experiments in this field, on local and international levels and makes use of this accumulated expertise. There is permanent cooperation between the Ministry and the General Secretariat for Developmental Planning, which is the supervisor authority for Qatar National Development Strategy 2011-2016. In this process, the Ministry shares experiences with various state bodies through several activities carried out by the General Secretariat for following up the state strategy. Now, we take this opportunity to thank them for all efforts exerted in this regard.

The Ministry’s care to its customers is extendible through launching several services to facilitate procedures needed to its several departments, how customer satisfaction, as core element of quality, is evaluated within the performance of the Ministry as service provider organization?

- Provision of distinguished services and customer satisfaction is the diligent care of H.E. the Minister and Ministry Officials. All are working collaboratively and cooperatively to achieve this purpose. No doubt that customer satisfaction is the key for success for any organization. Thus, the feedbacks from our customers identify strengths and weaknesses of quality. To this end, we launched questionnaire to monitor customer satisfaction for the services provided by the Ministry, in cooperation with the various administrative units to take all necessary decisions and procedures, in accordance with the results of these surveys.

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On the other hand, Quality Department is the competent authority for instrumentation of the facilities of the Ministry, particularly the new ones, i.e. Al Rayyan and Al Zain Municipalities. Therefore, during design of customer service counters, we follow scientific criteria that maintain smoothness of work flow and are fit for easy and simple provision of the services.

In addition, when it comes to customer satisfaction, it is noteworthy to highlight the multi-functions of other departments in the Ministry, i.e. Public Relations and Communications Department, which opens effective communications channels with public and serves as the call center of the Ministry. Through this department, public can apply through phone to obtain some services. In addition, it receives complaints and feedbacks from the public and refers them to competent authorities, and follows them up to final settlement up to total satisfaction. Moreover, customer service offices are available in all areas of the facility of the Ministry, working hardly to help all customers.

Moreover, it is worth mentioning to highlight the effective role played by the Information System Department in development of communication channels between the public and the Ministry; whether through development of several online e-services, development of smart phones applications (iPhone, and Android) or Ministry’s service systems available at some complexes and public spaces. All these efforts are collaborate for satisfaction of public and introduce the best services.

Significant features in Quality Management include interest in human resources, in terms of education and training for achievement of advanced level of productivity and effectiveness in accordance with Qatar National Vision 2030, What are the efforts exerted in your department to achieve such objectives?

- Development and training of human resources, in the Ministry, is a core competency for the Human Resources Department. The Department devotes internal training courses by Education and Training Section, in addition to outsourcing training courses, or others provided in cooperation with the Institute of Administrative Development and other state authorities. Concerning our role, it monitors the training needs and requirements through evaluation of the services provided and satisfaction of customers, which may identify training needs to be highlighted for competent officials from Human Resources Department, and are covered in their training programs or through conducting study on specific sector of the staff to identify their needs for training. The case was applied for inspectors; whom represent significant sector in the Ministry. In cooperation with the Human Resources Department, training needs were identified, and then Training and Education Section inserted the necessary training programs in the annual training plan of the Ministry. Here, I would state and due to the importance of control and inspection processes, special department was developed for control in each municipality. The mission of this department is to carry out control and inspection in various fields. We cooperated with the heads of control departments in all municipalities to study the inspection procedures and applicable forms, and issued manual for the various control and inspection processes. The manual is a consolidated reference for all inspectors from all municipalities.

In addition, consolidated forms were developed for each type of inspection, i.e. reports of arrest, reconciliation, notices and acknowledgments, and other forms of inspection in Arabic and English, for ease understanding by the employees of inspected establishments.

Quality Department competencies include preparation of studies, researches and reports of the system of quality in the Ministry, and to solve implications and compromises for its various administrative units, besides contributing to propose plan, develop a system and techniques and simplify procedures, … etc, what the result of your efforts in this regard?

- Quality Department operation was synchronized with the approval of the new organizational structure of the Ministry, which structure introduced several changes to the organizational structures of municipalities and the various departments. In addition, sectors of the Ministry such as urban planning, transfer of agriculture sector from the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning to the Ministry of Environment were merged. These changes motivated the Ministry to activate the competences, in cooperation with the technical bureau of the office of H.E. the Minister and the administrative units of the Ministry. Concentration was made to the services of the Ministry, to maintain smoothness of work procedures related to the services provided. Analysis of Ministry-provided services work procedures was conducted and re-engineering process was carried out to adapt with the new organizational structure of the Ministry, in addition to development and consolidation of all applicable forms used by the public to obtain said services in Arabic and English.

At the present time, we are in the final phase for approval of the Ministry Services Manual, intended to be introduced to the Public through the website of the Ministry, as reference for all applicants to know the requirements for application and other procedures necessary.

On the other hand, H.E. the Minister exerted diligent care for development of permits complex, in cooperation with several out-of-Ministry service bodies. Satisfaction of customers was surveyed on frequent basis and development needs and solutions for delay of transactions were identified, in addition villas building permits procedures were introduced for development, which matter shall enable customers to have approvals on building permit in no more than 5 days, including the architectural approval and the approval from other service providers like (Kahramaa “Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation”, Ashghal, Civil Defense, and Qtel), instead of more than 30 days processing before.

The above was an outcome to the efforts exerted by the Ministry and the various service competent bodies, which are all thanked for their diligence and care to remove any impediments or compromises to the work of the permits complex, taking into account that the development process will include medium and mega projects in the second phase.

At the end, we thank Al-Arab newspaper to give us such opportunity to present some activities of the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning. Besides, the Ministry takes this opportunity also to promise the public and partners to be proactive in providing the best level of services and satisfaction of all needs of customers.

source: Al Arab Newspaper