Analysis of Public Satisfaction on Services Quality of Urban Local Authorities in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Local Authorities are in the lowest level administration structure in Sri Lanka. As enormous amount of literature suggest, service quality and beneficiaries satisfaction are very important concepts that local authorities must understand in order to remain efficient and effective. Accordingly, SERVQUAL is one of best models used in measuring level of service quality of local authorities. This paper aims to measure the satisfaction level of beneficiaries’ in selected Urban Local Authorities in Colombo district using SERVQUAL model and describe how beneficiaries perceive service quality and whether they are satisfied with services offered by local authorities. Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), Dehivala Mount Lavinia MC, Mahagaragama UC and Boralesgamuwa UC limits were selected as sampling framework. Unit of analysis is beneficiaries and 50 beneficiaries were interviewed in each authority using seven point Likert scaled, self-administered questionnaire. Data was analyzed as per the SERVQUAL model with help of SPSS 20.0 package. Considering all aspects by which public are satisfied related to the services provided by the local authorities in selected sample, Maharagama UC is providing expected services as it is; with a small gap -0.02. Also CMC’s gap -0.11 indicates a better sign of their services without having a large deviation from the expected level. However, Boralesgamuwa UC is the most inefficient services providing local authority which scores a 3.00 gap. As per the gap shows, Dehiwal Mt. Levenia is also slightly weak service providing local authority. However, further research on this area is required to verify the findings and find out the reasons/causes to the dissatisfaction (gap) of the people who look for services from Local Authorities in Sri Lanka.