Waiting Time as a Resource

Abstract

The article analyzes waiting time to obtain different public services on the state and municipal levels, including queuing time to request and obtain services, and overall waiting time between the service request and service delivery. The research evaluates how these parameters are affected by the general policies and measures implemented by the Russian authorities. The research is based on the data of sociological project conducted by RANEPA in 2011-2014 that measured the level of satisfaction with the quality of public services. As the sociological survey indicates, the government's policies designed to improve the overall quality of the public services also have positive impact on waiting and queuing time. Comparing with 2012 average queuing time for submitting a request or obtaining the service decreased from 54.7 to 35.7 minutes. It is possible that in the next few years this parameter will be improved further, up to 15 minutes. Overall average waiting time between submitting a request for service and delivering the service has decreased from 22.1 to 16.8 days. According to the author such general policies and measures, implemented by the government have positive effect on the waiting time and are useful tools in decreasing the amount of unproductive time, wasted in the queues. It is advisable to use this experience in other areas where the government plays the dominant role and the opportunities for the market competitions are limited including medical, educational and social services.