Enhanced Citizen Services Initiated in Hazmieh

In a ceremony at the Hazmieh Municipal building on June 20, 2008, Hazmieh Municipality, USAID and the Center marked the official launching of the E-Municipality initiative and the opening of the Citizen Reception Office (CRO). Municipal presidents and council members as well as other prominent members of the community participated in the event.

Organized under a four-year grant from USAID as part of comprehensive efforts to support good governance, the creation of a modern citizen service center and the introduction of E-Municipality – including the development of an interactive website - are designed to encourage greater transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness in providing services and information to residents of Hazmieh.


Citizens can now monitor online – by accessing the municipal website - their municipal tax record that includes detailed historical tax payments, current obligations, and additional information such as due dates and penalty grace periods. Tax payers can create their own user accounts and passwords on Hazmieh's website to ensure confidentiality of tax records.

Slated for implementation in five large municipalities, the citizen component of E-Municipality complements the internal administrative system that allows citizens to track online the status of any applications using a designated user name and password received at the time of submission.
 

Regional Director for SUNY/CLD Mahmoud Batlouni spoke in his opening statement about the concept of modern administration noting that "effort and persistence are the keys to sound development and to building a progessive administration that will improve the management of municipal revenues and the collection processes." Mr. Batlouni then thanked Mayor Jean Al Asmar and the employees of Hazmieh Municipality for their cooperation and hard-work, and gave an overview of the assistance provided to Hazmieh by SUNY/CLD and USAID.

After a brief demonstration of the E-citizen services offered through the municipal website, Mayor Al Asmar welcomed all present highlighting at the same time the importance of the cooperation between USAID and SUNY/CLD in terms of furthering municipal work. He offered an appreciation plaque from the Municipality to Director Batlouni and another to USAID Program Specialist/Chief Accountant Lena Jammal which was accepted on her behalf by Ms. Rabia Aboul-Hosn of SUNY/CLD. The Mayor noted the dramatic increase in collected taxes as a result of the assistance, in particular rental value fees – a major category of directly collected taxes – that increased from $350,000 in 2004 to $866,000 in 2007, a cumulative increase of 147%.