Municipal online complaints portal now also available as a mobile app
Potsdam - Citizens can now report shortcomings to their local administration even more easily and quickly via the municipal complaints portal "Maerker". As the Ministry of the Interior announced in Potsdam on Friday, "Maerker" is now also available to download as an app for Android, iOS and Windows Phone for smartphones and tablets. The free app now makes it possible to inform the 60 "Maerker" municipalities in Brandenburg and three "Maerker" districts in Berlin online about annoyances such as defective street lamps, potholes, littering and more.
Reporting defects with the new "Maerker" app is as simple as this: determine the location (automatically via GPS or manually), briefly describe the issue and send the report. Once the report has been received, the administration provides information in the app and on the website about whether, how and when the defect will be rectified. The traffic light colours red, yellow and green provide simple and transparent information on the status of processing. Of course, a report can still be submitted via the website.
"Maerker" was launched in 2009 by the Ministry of the Interior in cooperation with the Association of Towns and Municipalities. The portal is operated by the Brandenburg IT service provider (ZIT-BB) and can be used by local authorities free of charge. In 2010, "Maerker" was honoured as the "Most Innovative eGovernment Project for Social Solutions" in a competition under the patronage of the Federal Minister of the Interior.
The local authorities involved have undertaken to remedy the situation within three days of receiving the information or to forward the information to the responsible body. A traffic light next to the complaint on the Internet vividly shows the processing status - from red (= nothing has happened yet) to amber (= in progress) to green (= problem solved).
A clip on YouTube shows how it works when it doesn't:
https://www.youtube.com
You can find the participating Maerker municipalities at:
http://maerker.brandenburg.de/brandenburg
http://www.berlin.de/maerker/
You can easily find the apps at:
http://www.govapps.de
Ministry of the Interior
Press spokesman