Bahraini crown prince encourages use of new e-complaints system

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister today encouraged all government bodies to make use of the new e-complaints and suggestions system (Tawasul). The Tawasul system has been introduced by the E-Government Authority (EGA) in close coordination with the Bahrain Centre for Excellence and other government entities in order to allow the public to readily share their feedback on the quality of government services by submitting complaints about shortcomings and failures to address issues. In addition, the system is designed to increase government performance and maintain transparency. The system will also act as a unified platform for interaction between all government bodies and the public. His Royal Highness was presented with the latest developments in the new system and called on all government entities to make use of it to facilitate improved interaction with the public. To this date, nine government bodies have subscribed to the system, including the Ministry of Housing, the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning, the Bahrain Central Informatics Organization (CIO), the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), and the National Health Regulatory Authority. Commenting on the new system, His Royal Highness emphasised that the system should be included in the priorities set by government bodies and will serve to increase interaction with the public and improve government performance in line with international standards. His Royal Highness also called for complaints and suggestions submitted via the system to be addressed swiftly and used to generate mechanisms and policies to prevent similar problems from recurring in the future. His Royal Highness noted that the new system follows the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister of Bahrain, to develop a unified electronic system that allows the public to share complaints and suggestions about all government departments. Tawasul has been designed as an “intelligent system” that offers a tracking system to monitor the progress made on each complaint. It also has a response system that disseminates text messages and e-mails to users allowing them to track their complaint. Each complaint is allocated a reference number and stored in a database accessible to all ministers so that they may monitor the performance of their staff in addressing the complaints and suggestions submitted. The system also allows decision makers within a government entity to analyse, improve and amend the process of addressing a complaint. The versatility of the system reflects the government’s keenness to involve the public and receive enquiries. Tawasul also benefits users by offering access to the system 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The system can be accessed via http://www.bahrain.bh and sends the request directly to the relevant government body where it is analysed within a specific timeframe. Once a request has been addressed, the system has a response protocol to obtain feedback regarding the user’s satisfaction with the level of service provided.