There are lots of small villages and hamlets in Ukraine, where residents face difficulties in getting administrative services. Mobile centres will solve the problem.

Viktor Tymoshchuk, U-LEAD with Europe Programme expert

There are different models for delivering administrative services.

The ideal way is to get them online.

However, Ukraine needs more than one year to streamline legislation and build technical infrastructure.

Administrative Service Centres (ASCs) have become the most widespread solution for administrative service delivery. Common ASCs are specially equipped premises, providing a wide range of administrative services in comfortable conditions.

However, when it comes to delivering services in communities that include many settlements, the only one ASC office will not always be a satisfactory solution. Apart from the set of services and comfort, the issue of territorial accessibility is important.

The experience of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, which launched the first mobile ASC in Ukraine in cooperation with the Slavutska community, may be useful here.

Mobile ASC is a specially equipped vehicle equipped with two full-fledged workplaces to deliver administrative services.

Admission of citizens is carried out inside the vehicle. It has a heating and air conditioning system, three places for visitors, and a backup power generator. Due to the compact access ramp, the centre can serve people with disabilities. Mobile ASC can work anywhere during any season.

When is it appropriate to plan the launch of a mobile ASC in a community? It is necessary for those communities which comprise many distant small settlements, where it is inefficient or impossible to equip the stationary premises.

The demand for services in such villages is rather moderate, it is difficult to find qualified personnel there, and the cost of office establishment is economically unjustified. Instead, mobile ASC can visit settlements on a flexible schedule, depending on the needs of consumers, saving their time and money.

Mobile ASC is justified only when a community has a classic Administrative Service Centre. Skilled personnel and a powerful back office able to process applications for services of any complexity are required for mobile centre operation.

The set of services is the most important issue both for the classic and mobile centres. Potentially, these can be almost all administrative services for amalgamated hromadas.

As Slavuta is in the process of amalgamation, the ASC will provide 80 services at the first stage, including subsidies, state assistance, real estate and business registration services, adding photos in passports after reaching 25 and 45 years of age.

Currently, this mobile ASC will work in neighbouring villages on the basis of the agreement on cooperation of hromadas. If the State Migration Service agrees, it will be possible to install passport issuing equipment in the mobile ASC.

Payments for administrative services in the mobile ASC are possible through a bank POS terminal. Besides, one of the options is a case with equipment that allows serving sick or very elderly people at home.

The economic component issue of the mobile ASC is logical. The U-LEAD with Europe Programme and the town of Slavuta invested UAH 1.6 million into the mobile centre. Additional costs include the driver’s salary, refueling the car – about 10 litres per day for a route of up to 100 kilometres, and small monthly mobile Internet expenses.

If at least several chargeable administrative services, such as real estate registration, are provided during the day, then these costs will be covered. In case of availability of passport services in the mobile ASC, it can be cost-effective. Let’s hope that the practice will prove such forecasts.

The most important thing is to ensure that customers of administrative services are satisfied, and the mobile ASC becomes one of the symbols of positive changes in Ukraine.