Utjecaj epidemije bolesti COVID-19 na percepciju kvalitete e-usluga jedinica lokalne samouprave – primjer Grada Rijeke

Abstract

The global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 epidemic has affected the entire world, including the Republic of Croatia. Consequently, states had to take a number of measures in the field of health, economy and public administration to mitigate the consequences caused by the epidemic. Temporary measures restricting human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as free movement of people and the implementation of active economic measures with the primary goal of maintaining the fiscal system and regular operation of state administration bodies and local and regional governments, were the conditio sine qua non for all further activities after the declaration of the COVID-19 epidemic. In performing tasks from the scope of local self-government units, high-quality digitisation of services was a key tool and solution for their regular functioning at a time when citizens’ health was threatened by the epidemic. The main research question relates to user satisfaction with the provided e-services and their perception of quality after the onset of the epidemic, using the example of the city of Rijeka. The complementary research method was a survey conducted among residents of the city of Rijeka, which was aimed at examining the perception of the quality of electronic services provided by the city of Rijeka before and after the onset of the epidemic. A total of 362 respondents from the area of the city of Rijeka participated in the survey. The aim of the article is to define the impact of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 epidemic on the perception of quality, and the results show greater satisfaction with the quality of the available e-services of the city of Rijeka than before the onset of the epidemic. While the respondents are currently most satisfied with the e-service Rijeka City Card and the e-consultation service, they are least satisfied with the e-service Electronic Office of the City of Rijeka and the e-service Information Service of the City of Rijeka.