The government plays a vital role in providing services to the public, in accordance with its main function as a public servant. Therefore, the government is required to continuously strive to improve the quality of services provided. In the context of governance, public services must be well-managed through the concept of Good Governance. One of the important pillars in Good Governance is community participation.

According to Article 42 of Government Regulation No. 96 of 2012 on Public Services, public participation in public services can be realised through inputs, responses, reports, and/or complaints submitted to the organiser, the organiser’s immediate superior, related parties, or through the mass media. As a service user, the success of public services is also measured by the level of community satisfaction. This satisfaction can be achieved if the services provided meet the needs and expectations of the community.

Given this urgency, Sofia Kurniawati, a student from the Government Studies Program at FISIP, Diponegoro University, who was part of the TIM II 2023/2024 Community Service Program (KKN) in Tegalsari Village, Kandeman Subdistrict, Batang Regency, launched the ‘Lapor Pak Kades’ Program.

‘’Lapor Pak Kades’’ is a program aimed at bridging the gap village government closer and the community, ensuring that citizens’ complaints and aspirations can be conveyed directly to the village government. This program implements a complaint system that is available offline and online. Offline means are in the form of complaint boxes placed in strategic locations in the village, while online means use the LAPOR platform or People’s Online Aspiration and Complaint Service which can be accessed through short message applications such as WhatsApp.

The work program began with the observation and interviews, as well as discussions with village officials, especially in the field of public service development and employees who served as front liners (dealing directly with the community).  From the observation, it was found that Tegalsari Village did not yet have a complaints service as a means of aspirations and complaints from citizens in order to increase community participation. The complaints service is only based on a website that does not have up-to-date information and there is no contact information that can be used by the community to complain about complaints and aspirations of the village community. The second stage involved the creation of WhatsApp for programme purposes and the design of the complaint box in consultation with village officials. The last stage was the submission of the ‘Lapor Pak Kades’ complaint box at the Tegalsari Village Office.

With the ‘Lapor Pak Kades’ program, it is hoped that communication between the community and the village government will become more effective and transparent so that community issues can be resolved.

Author: Sofia Kurniawati, Bachelor’s in Government Studies 2021, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences
Supervisor: Zani Anjani Rafsanjani HSM. S.Si., M.Sc.
KKN Location: Tegalsari Village, Kandeman Subdistrict, Batang Regency