Overcoming Complexity in Public Services: Facilitating Access to the Bureaucratic Barriers Elimination System

INDECOPI receives over 363 complaints a day. In terms of bureaucratic barriers, last year, 71% of the complaints were incomplete or inaccurate. To address this, we introduced new templates guided by behavioural insights. These templates simplify the process for complainants and change how we request further data from complainants to get us better information and improve the public service by eliminating bureaucratic barriers.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

The project aims to address the issue of incomplete or inaccurate complaints filed by citizens pertaining to bureaucratic barriers. In 2022, out of a total of 131 complaints filed incompletely or imprecise, 34% were not considered because the complaints did not comply with the requirements established in Article 20 of Legislative Decree No. 1256 (Anti-Barriers Law). Moreover, last year, 71% of the complaints filed last year were incomplete or inaccurate complaints.

This situation generates a risk related to the possible permanence of bureaucratic barriers in the market that affect the businesses and activities of economic agents. Therefore, the main objective of the innovation proposed is improving the public service by eliminating bureaucratic barriers making more efficient the complaint process, encouraging compliance with the requirements and, consequently, obtaining complete complaints.

To achieve this goal, a new model of request for correction and a response format has been designed to facilitate the correction process for complainants. The first document is sent to the complainant requesting more detailed information to comply with the requirements established in the Anti-Barriers Law. These new templates leverage insights from behavioural science:

• The first page includes a summary showing which requirements have been met and which need to be addressed.
• the notes are moved to the end of the document to improve readability; and
• a QR code is incorporated that directs to a response form that the complainant can use to respond to the cure request.

Overall, these modifications are in line with behavioural science insights by making the complaint process more intuitive, less cumbersome, and visually more prominent.
The innovative approach benefits complainants significantly. They experience a more accessible process, making it easier for them to highlight potential illegal or unreasonable bureaucratic barriers. Simultaneously, it also benefits the legal team in charge of handling the complaints, by receiving more complete documents.

It is expected that this intervention will continue to be developed until the number of observations required for the corresponding evaluation is reached. It should be noted that a random assignment strategy has been used, i.e., these new models are sent to one group of odd-numbered files and a traditional model is sent to the other group of even-numbered files. This will allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of the new model compared to the traditional model.

Moreover, it is expected that this innovation would motivate other public institutions to use behavioural solutions so that they can solve the problems identified within the framework of their competencies from an innovative view.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

This innovation is distinguished by its user-centred approach and the application of behavioural science insights.

The new model of request for correction incorporates an initial highlighted summary, the notes of the document are moved to the end to improve readability, and a QR code is also placed that directs to a response format to speed up the complainant's response. These strategies reduce the "hassle factors" in the reporting process and are supported by the tool of saliency, to effectively highlight crucial information.

In this regard, this approach improves the public service by elimination bureaucratic barriers changing the way we ask for further information from the complainant to get us better information and prevent the permanence of possible illegal or unreasonable barriers that affect the activities conducted by economic agents.

What is the current status of your innovation?

Currently, the innovation project is in the implementation phase, bringing the strategies described above to reality. To ensure the effectiveness of these initiatives, we are leveraging data science tools. We track the accurate delivery of the new models, as well as the key variables of the intervention in real-time, using the legal team matrix and a dashboard created in Looker Studio. The application of these tools not only facilitates the implementation process but also provides a real-time view that allows us to have the ability to adjust and optimise strategies to achieve more effective results.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

a. The Resolutive Team (legal team) sends the new design of the request for correction to complainants. Their participation is crucial for the practical implementation and provides valuable information for future adjustments to the proposed strategies.

b. The Innovation Team for the Elimination of Bureaucratic Barriers designed the new request for correction and response format based on behavioural science tools. In addition, they created a dashboard for continuous monitoring of the project.

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

Citizens or firms affected by bureaucratic barriers: The new documents prevent complaints from not being upheld, as well as the possible permanence of illegal or unreasonable bureaucratic obstacles affecting their economic activities.

Government officials: They benefit from receiving complete complaints. This optimizes their work by analysing cases more efficiently and facilitates an informed decision making, contributing to a more effective understanding of the limitations and prohi

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

The new model shows a positive impact, according to preliminary results. In the treatment group, the percentage of non-estimated complaints dropped to 16%, an improvement of 24 percentage points compared to 40% in the control group. The treatment group has a response rate to the request for correction of 93%, exceeding the 77% of the control group. However, only 7% have used the response format provided, suggesting adjustments.

The implementation followed a randomised plan, applying the new model to recent complaints with odd file numbers, while the traditional model targeted even file numbers.

We expect the impact evaluation to reveal a significant difference favouring the treatment group with the new model.

Challenges and Failures

A significant challenge has been to ensure that the innovative design, based on behavioural tools, is sufficiently motivating for complainants to file complete complaints.

In addition, it has been found that, although there has been a higher response rate to the request for corrective action, only 7% have used the response format provided. This fact suggests the need to adjust the document to increase adoption of the format.

Conditions for Success

Effective leadership in our office was vital in addressing challenges and fostering innovative solutions. Coordinating active participation from all stakeholders during project development and implementation posed a key challenge, met with leadership's encouragement for collaboration.

The use of data science to perform the pertinent follow-up, which shows in real-time the progress of all the cases. This is possible due to the recollection evidence in matrices and their visualisation in dashboards for the participants involved.

Replication

According to the methodology proposed for this innovation, the findings should be disseminated to collaborators and invite replication in other areas. This seeks to institutionalize the practice and motivate other public institutions in the use of behavioural solutions so that they can solve the problems identified within the framework of their competencies from an innovative view.

Lessons Learned

User-centered design: User experience is key. Learn that the design based on behavioural tools must be carefully tuned to ensure it motivates complainants to file complete reports.

Flexibility in strategy: It is important to have the ability to adjust the strategy in the face of non-use of the response format. Flexibility will allow us to reassess and modify quickly.

Complementary tools for continuous evaluation: The integration of complementary tools, such as dashboards, has proven to be important, improving decision-making and project efficiency.

Anything Else?

To monitor the implementation and correct use of the new document designs, a data dashboard was created to show in real-time the cases of the treatment and control group. This tool uses information recorded and systematized in monitoring matrices used by the Resolutive Team.