The rapidly changing environment, increasing needs, demands and expectations of public services users are the challenges the Civil Service has been facing for a number of years. Recently, more and more emphasis is being put on the latter s quality, excellence and efficiency. Municipalities are a part of the civil service and their primary function is providing quality public services to its citizens. Public services users want and demand a municipality be successful and efficient. Aspiring to improve its functioning, various approaches and models have been developed to measure and insure quality. This degree paper analyses the use of the quality and excellence models in several municipalities of Southeast Slovenia. The execution of establishing the quality of one is, unlike that of the public administration, not legally required and planned by the State, which results in less frequent utilization of those models. The survey conducted using a questionnaire in selected municipalities showed that only one of them uses the model to improve and offer its citizens services of greater quality. On average, the survey includes small municipalities, since more than a half of them are inhabited by up to 5.000 residents. Regarding the diversity of size, it was expected that the municipalities do not strive to use any means in order to improve the quality of services. The information concerning the satisfaction of public services users and their quality is acquired by other means, such as customer comments and complaints book, local media and conducting surveys. The most considerable amount of attention is paid to the direct personal contact with the client. It has been established that various models and tools would pose administrative obstacles to the employees. Another reason for the lack of use is a shortage of financial and human resources, as well as the lack of knowledge concerning the quality and excellence tools. The degree paper s results and some municipalities references show that the use of models in the selected municipalities does not necessarily bring additional value to their improved functioning, which is why they choose not to use them.
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