Complaint as Positive Energy: The Experience of "The Worst Bureaucratic Procedure of My Life" Contest in Bolivia

Author
Date
Dec 2014
A government agenda of openness and transparency is critical to improving the quality of services to users and streamlining bureaucratic procedures. Efficiency and transparency in administrative processes, access to information, user-friendliness of paperwork, and mechanisms for resolving paperwork issues must be ensured so that citizens can fully exercise their rights when requesting a decision from the government, applying for a license, or soliciting other information or documentation issued by the State. Bolivia's Ministry for Institutional Transparency and Fight against Corruption treated user experience as a fundamental aspect of the relationship between citizens and the public sector by launching a contest in 2011 called "The Worst Bureaucratic Procedure of My Life". The aim was to solicit examples from users of extremely bureaucratic procedures as well as proposals to improve them.