Seongdong-gu Selected as 'Top District in Civil Complaint Handling' Among 25 Autonomous Districts in Seoul...The Secret?

[Seoul District News] Seongdong-gu Tops 25 Districts in 2021 Seoul Civil Service Evaluation for Legal and Response Office Complaint Handling...Meticulous Management System with Mayor-Led Complaint Processing, One-Stop Service, and Advance SMS Notification of Deadlines...Yangcheon-gu Achieves Grade 1 in Three Regional Safety Index Areas...Eunpyeong-gu Wins Triple Crown in Ministry of Health and Welfare Regional Welfare Evaluation...Gwanak-gu Selected for Excellent Civil Service with Advanced Case Management System Supporting Street Homeless Independence and Self-Reliance

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seongdong-gu (Mayor Jung Won-oh) was selected as the best district in the ‘2021 Civil Service Administrative Service Evaluation’ hosted by Seoul City, ranking first among 25 autonomous districts.

The Civil Service Administrative Service Evaluation comprehensively assesses the compliance rate and reduction rate of processing periods, performance, and satisfaction of statutory and response office civil complaints for Seoul City headquarters, business offices, autonomous districts, and investment institutions. This year, a total of 350 institutions competed for the best institution selection based on data from October 2020 to September 2021.

Among them, Seongdong-gu received consistently high evaluations in each assessment category, achieving scores far exceeding the average of the 25 autonomous districts in both statutory and response office civil complaints.

In the statutory civil complaint evaluation, Seongdong-gu’s overall score was 75.7 points, surpassing the average score of 62.7 points for the 25 autonomous districts by 13 points. For response office civil complaints, Seongdong-gu also received an overall score of 78.2 points, which is 16.2 points higher than the average score of 62 points among the 25 autonomous districts.

The background of this evaluation is interpreted as Seongdong-gu’s efforts to create an efficient work environment, continuously communicate with residents to understand their inconveniences in civil complaints, and find ways to improve them, while handling even minor complaints with kindness.

Since 2014, the district proactively prepared for the rapid processing of statutory civil complaints by establishing a dedicated permit team for one-stop civil complaint processing, handling permits, registrations, confirmations, and certifications according to legal requirements.

For a total of 111 types of permits and reports in the fields of food, public hygiene, culture and sports, and local economy, the district drastically reduced the 21-step process for civil complaint reception to 5 steps, processing a total of 4,560 rapid civil complaints last year.

Seongdong-gu also actively implemented specialized civil complaint processing improvement systems unique to the district, such as the ‘Civil Complaint Processing Deadline Advance Notice SMS Service’ that sends text reminders to responsible personnel three days before the deadline for complaints pending over five days, and the ‘Speed Civil Complaint Mileage System’ that accumulates mileage for shortened processing days and awards gift certificates to outstanding public officials.

Through civil complaint examiners, the district checks monthly the status of pending civil complaints and Saeol consultation civil complaint performance, analyzes customer satisfaction, and develops improvement measures. Extended complaints are managed separately, and a 60% reduction rate standard is set to actively improve the reduction rate.

By minimizing required documents and actively utilizing systems such as the civil complaint guardian system for mid- to long-term complex complaints, Seongdong-gu, led by Mayor Jung Won-oh, has established a detailed and efficient work system capable of seamless civil complaint processing, which is credited for the high evaluation results.

These efforts also influenced the perspective of all employees, who view civil complaints as ‘like family.’ With employees’ empathy that policy implementation occurs at the frontline of local governments, the district demonstrated ‘kind’ administration, achieving an overwhelming response office civil complaint satisfaction score of 32 points (Seoul City average 21.8 points) in this evaluation.

Earlier this year, Seongdong-gu was selected as the best institution for four consecutive years in the ‘2020 Comprehensive Civil Service Evaluation’ hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, receiving the Prime Minister’s Award and a financial incentive of 200 million KRW in special grants.

Mayor Jung Won-oh of Seongdong-gu said, “Through this Seoul City evaluation, we were able to confirm the efforts of all Seongdong-gu office employees to provide high-quality civil service administrative services,” and added, “I want to share the joy of this achievement with the residents.” He also stated, “We will continue to provide the best civil service that goes beyond satisfaction to impress residents through proactive administration.”

Yangcheon-gu (Mayor Kim Soo-young) achieved first grade (‘safest’) in three out of six categories in the ‘2021 National Regional Safety Index’ announced by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on the 9th.

The ‘Regional Safety Index,’ announced annually by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, indicates the safety level of local governments nationwide based on the previous year’s statistics in six indicators: traffic accidents, fires, crimes, daily safety, suicide, and infectious diseases.

Yangcheon-gu stated that to improve residents’ safety awareness, it promotes the ‘Safety Inspection Day Campaign’ on the 4th of every month, operating ‘Visiting Daily Safety Education’ where safety education specialists visit applicant institutions to provide customized safety education by target group.

Additionally, at the Yangcheon Life Safety Experience Center Education Hall (363 Mokdongseo-ro, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul), the district conducts training for residents on CPR, fire suppression, smoke evacuation, emergency escape devices, and electric/gas safety. It also continuously patrols, inspects, and reports hazardous facilities in the area, supports safety equipment inspection and installation for vulnerable households, and equips public facilities such as welfare centers and daycare centers with smoke masks for safe evacuation during fires. These effective projects for creating a safe living environment for residents earned high evaluations, leading to first-grade achievements in fire, crime, and daily safety categories.

From the 2022 Regional Safety Index, a safety awareness indicator will be added, newly reflecting statistics such as driver seatbelt usage rate, high-risk drinking rate, and health checkup participation rate, enabling comprehensive analysis of regional safety status. Yangcheon-gu plans to intensify continuous safety management and safety awareness improvement accordingly.

Mayor Kim Soo-young of Yangcheon-gu said, “With the belief that nothing is more important than residents’ safety, all our employees have worked together, and thankfully, we achieved the highest grade in three safety categories,” adding, “We will continue multifaceted efforts to create a safe environment worthy of the name ‘Safe Yangcheon.’”

Eunpyeong-gu (Mayor Kim Mi-kyung) announced that it achieved a remarkable feat by winning awards in three categories, including one ‘Grand Prize,’ in the ‘2021 Regional Welfare Project Evaluation’ conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, reaffirming its status as a leading welfare administration city.

This evaluation, conducted across 17 metropolitan cities and provinces and 229 city, county, and district governments nationwide in 17 categories, is considered the highest authority award in welfare administration. It involves a rigorous and strict evaluation process including first-stage review by metropolitan governments (for basic local governments), second-stage review by a selection committee of welfare experts appointed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and on-site inspections to select award-winning local governments by category.

Notably, Eunpyeong-gu won awards in three categories nationwide: the ‘Grand Prize’ for social economy activation, and ‘Excellence Awards’ for providing visiting health and welfare services and integrated community care services. These awards recognize the warm care administration that prioritizes people despite diverse and complex welfare demands and poor financial conditions, as well as the public-private efforts to build a dense and safe social safety net.

In the social economy activation category, since the establishment of the dedicated Social Economy Division in 2016, Eunpyeong-gu has continuously built a foundation for social economy activation by enacting the Eunpyeong Social Economy Basic Ordinance, operating the Eunpyeong Social Economy Hub Center and the Eunpyeong Social Economy Innovation Valley Center. The district’s excellent local specialized cases aimed at overcoming regional issues such as youth, aging, and children through social economy were recognized. This category earned the nationwide highest award, the ‘Grand Prize,’ marking four consecutive years of awards since 2018.

In the visiting health and welfare service provision category, the district received excellent evaluations for establishing a more systematic platform and system to provide dense welfare services, efforts to enhance resident capacity for resident-led local problem solving, and tailored health and welfare services during the COVID-19 crisis. This category followed last year’s ‘Grand Prize’ with an ‘Excellence Award’ this year, achieving four consecutive years of awards since 2018 and setting a record for the most awards nationwide.

In the integrated community care service provision category, Eunpyeong-gu established the dedicated Care SOS Team in 2019, formed a public-private governance with experts from public and private sectors, and provides linked and cooperative services combining health, welfare, and care through integrated case management. This category recognized the district’s unique integrated care model, including the meal support project team and the health care network project with Seobuk Hospital, earning the honor of being the only Seoul district to receive this award.

Additionally, Eunpyeong-gu won an Excellence Award in the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s ‘Senior Job and Social Activity Support Project Evaluation,’ marking eight consecutive years as an excellent local government. It also secured 300 million KRW in the Seoul-type New Deal Job Contest and a total budget of 1 billion KRW over four consecutive years, reflecting the positive evaluations of the district’s resident-experienced major welfare policies in various fields.

Mayor Kim Mi-kyung of Eunpyeong-gu said, “We are very pleased to deliver the award news to residents exhausted by COVID-19 after achieving excellent results in this evaluation where leading welfare policies and best practices of local governments nationwide competed in good faith,” adding, “We will do our best to build an Eunpyeong-type welfare safety net that residents can truly feel and that provides practical help when needed.”

Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) was honored with the Excellence Award for the ‘2021 Seoul City Civil Service Improvement Best Case’ for its project ‘Establishing a High-Difficulty Case Management Support System for the Independence and Self-Sufficiency of Street Homeless People.’

Previously, Seoul City selected nine best cases from 61 excellent civil complaint cases submitted by the city, autonomous districts, and affiliated institutions through expert first and second-stage reviews and online citizen voting.

The project selected as an excellent civil service by Gwanak-gu supports street homeless people, who are in welfare blind spots due to deregistration from resident registration, in regaining their rights as local residents while actively resolving community issues through collaboration with related departments and local institutions.

The district stated that the project was planned with the goal of overcoming the limitations of fragmented service delivery systems for street homeless people, restoring their rights as residents, and realizing a welfare community that everyone enjoys through active resolution of community problems.

Integrated case managers provide tailored integrated services to identified subjects through regular local patrols and counseling, while welfare planners at community service centers continuously monitor to prevent recurrence of crisis situations, strengthening linkage cooperation.

It is a demand-centered service support method that prevents re-entry into homeless life and supports independence and self-sufficiency by providing various customized services from both public and private sectors.

A district official said, “It is very meaningful that this project for the independence and self-sufficiency of street homeless people was selected as an excellent case in Seoul City’s civil service improvement,” adding, “We will actively strive to help street homeless people settle in the community and enjoy life as local residents.”

Jung-gu, Seoul (Mayor Seo Yang-ho) announced that it will reach out to local elementary school students with an upgraded demand-oriented ‘Jung-gu Style After-School Program.’

The district converted the after-school program, which had been operated by private consignment, to direct management by the district office from July, providing high-quality and diverse programs. Tuition, textbook fees, and material costs are all free. Bongnae Elementary and Cheonggu Elementary have been designated as pilot schools and are currently operating, with plans to expand to all public elementary schools in the district next year.

In November, the district produced videos of all classes in the pilot after-school program and released them on YouTube, conducting an online survey on program satisfaction and improvement measures simultaneously.

Parents curious about the after-school classes could vividly see the communication between instructors and students through the open class videos and participate in the survey by combining the video and their children’s opinions, moving away from the conventional formal survey method.

The survey results showed that 90% of parents participating in the after-school program were satisfied with the overall operation, citing reasons such as zero education costs and program diversity.

The district actively reflected the survey results to adjust program arrangements. Popular programs such as native English, cooking and broadcast dance, and basketball were expanded by adding classes to distribute student demand.

Additionally, to meet the high demand for physical activities and computer programs, badminton and computer coding courses were newly introduced. Special vacation classes such as Korean History Proficiency Test classes were also opened for upper-grade students (5th?6th grade) who find it difficult to participate in after-school programs during the semester due to academy schedules.

Issues pointed out during the pilot operation, such as poor learning attitudes due to free education and lack of linkage with care classroom programs, were addressed through active communication with parents. Students who cancel mid-term or have frequent absences face some restrictions on the next application, and if bullying occurs and does not improve after three warnings, participation in classes will be prohibited. From next year, popular after-school programs will also be offered in care classrooms to distribute demand.

To operate demand-centered programs, the district formed parent promotion groups for each school, maintaining continuous online communication, monthly on-site monitoring, and meetings to gather diverse opinions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.