Prime Minister demands attention to the population in 2022 work balance.    Photo: Estudios Revolucion.​

Havana, July 5 (RHC)-- As a matter of vital importance, today more than ever, in the midst of the complex situation that the country is going through, member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, described the activity of attention to the population, and recalled that we cannot "forget that we are not doing a favor or a management; it is an obligation."

On Tuesday, during the examination of the balance of work in 2022 of the Department of Attention to the Population of the Palace of the Revolution, he assured that "the attention to the proposals of the voters and the people in general constitutes a priority of the Party, of the Government, of the State and, therefore, it has to be so for each one of the levels of all the institutions and structures of the country".

In the meeting -- which united through videoconference those responsible for the teams of attention to the population in the Central State Administration Agencies, national entities and in the territories -- María del Carmen Cedeño Rodríguez, head of the Department of Attention to the Population of the Palace of the Revolution, explained that in 2022, 684,976 cases received through different channels were attended to in the country.

She detailed that the most reiterated issues were linked to requests for housing, land, medical attention, delinquency in acting against illegalities, as well as lack of water.

In addition, she referred to complaints about power cuts and difficulties in acquiring products in the Caribe and Cimex chain stores, as well as dissatisfaction with the amount of pensions for retirees and the high prices of basic necessities and services.

In presenting the report, Cedeño Rodriguez also discussed the factors that affect the uniform development and quality of the activity's operation. He pointed out that the people appointed to attend to the population do not always act with the required sensitivity, humanism and professionalism, and sometimes do not provide timely and well-founded answers to the issues raised.

Likewise, he said, there are cases that are considered to have a place, which are considered concluded with the response, and no follow-up is given to the restitution of broken rights and there are insufficiencies in the attention to segments of the population in situations of vulnerability.

Other elements that have an impact are associated with structural, technological and material difficulties for the development of this work, as well as the lack of a single computer system at the country level that would allow citizens to issue comments, receive information and responses online, he acknowledged.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz spoke about the art of listening, answering and solving the questions, because "in the procedures we cannot say that we have achieved that they have an expeditious course, with reasonable times, so that people receive the attention or the answer; there is still excess of bureaucracy in this important matter."

He recalled that the activity of attention to the population has constitutional rank, since the Magna Carta in its rticles 10, 53 and 61 establishes the obligation of the organs of the State to attend and respond to the people.  Therefore, he urged to establish efficient work systems to guarantee this mandate of our Constitution.

"We have to continue deepening the way in which we design, structure, organize, implement and control the attention to the population at the country level," stressed the Head of Government, who called on all authorities to "join efforts and collective intelligence in the search for solutions to our problems."

During the exchange, tools and methodologies that strengthen the attention, processing and follow-up of cases were shared. Then, they talked about sharing technology in all areas of life and society. Eugenio Fernando Acosta Noy, director of the Havana Historical Center Facilitation Office, referred to the Digital Self-Service Stations that were born in this entity since 2021.

This, according to the young man, has achieved that the attention to the public is segmented with the purpose of sharing the procedures and services in a specific way to each user, who through a free and public wifi can enter their requests or contracts for services, thus replacing face-to-face relationships with digital ones.