Abstract:
Improvement of public service delivery has been a continuous effort of every state institution so as they can be able to maintain the legitimacy to the citizens. Tanzanian government see the need to strengthen the delivery of service by introducing service charter applicable in both public and private organisations. This study, therefore, attempts to assess the impact of service charter on service delivery in higher learning institutions: A comparative study of private and public universities in Tanzania namely; the University of Dodoma (UDOM) and St John’s University of Tanzania (SJUT). The study, therefore, aimed to assess awareness of actors about the nature of service charter and its operational mechanisms, to find out the influence of service charter in the improved service delivery, and to explore challenges that hinder smooth implementation of service charter. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey study design with self-designed questionnaires. Data were collected by means of questionnaires and interview questions. A purposive sampling employed three sampling techniques; stratified random sampling, purposive sampling and pure random sampling were used in the study to represent the characteristics of respondents. Data were analysed by SPSS version 20.0 and presented in percentages, and frequencies. Research findings indicated that majority of the respondents from both Universities have information on service charter, but they don’t know the content of it. Majority of the respondents were satisfied with services delivered at SJUT compared to UDOM. It was further found that clients from SJUT enjoyed service provided when compared to UDOM. Low number of professional personnel in the provision of the service was mentioned to be the major challenge. Other challenges were lack of materials for performance of work or delivery of services, low incentives to the staff such as salaries, and the presence of corruption.
The study concluded that in both institutions, service charter enabled the service provider to provide good services to the clients. The study recommended that higher learning institutions should motivate their staff because they are the key actors of the Service Charter implementation.
