Budget 2017 Speech by Minister Grace Fu: Enabling our Partners, Engaging the Community

Mar 7, 2017

Introduction: Sustaining and Strengthening Past Initiatives

MSO takes a people-centric focus in bringing about better municipal services. We work with agencies to streamline processes for complex or cross-cutting municipal issues. In the short two years, we have undertaken many initiatives towards this goal. Mr. Ong Teng Koon and Dr. Faishal have asked for an update.

One of our first initiatives was the OneService App, which made it easier for residents to provide feedback on municipal matters, without the need to search for the right agency. The App has been well-received with over 83,000 registered users, reporting some 85,000 cases. This is an increase of over 70% in users and 190% in cases received since the start of last year. We have received many compliments from residents who complimented agencies on their prompt response and for taking residents’ feedback seriously.

Going forward, in line with the direction of the Smart Nation Initiative, we want to expand the App from a feedback tool to a multi-channel network that connects the Government, the people and the private sector with one another. The first crowdsourcing feature in the App is called Spot Abandoned Trolleys, and was introduced in April last year, which attracted over 4,600 reported cases. Last September, MSO launched the OneService Portal to complement the App, where residents can access information on services and updates in their neighbourhood. Recently, MSO also released a municipal case map on both platforms, which shows all feedback received by government agencies over the past seven days. Users can see all the cases reported on their neighbourhood.

Besides improving the interface with the public, MSO paid attention to streamlining processes that involve multiple agencies. For instance, LTA was appointed as the First Responder for feedback on maintenance of connectivity-related infrastructure. Our efforts have paid off and agencies are increasingly taking on a collaborative approach in handling inter-agency issues. For example, LTA received feedback last year from a concerned Mdm Ngeo on some uneven metal steps and a sunken manhole near a road junction. LTA approached PUB as the steps were on top of a drain. In view of public safety, PUB carried out repair works promptly. Concurrently, LTA reached out to Singtel who helped trace the sunken manhole to NetLink Trust, thereby facilitated rectification works. Mdm Ngeo, who witnessed the contractors hard at work, expressed appreciation to agencies for their efforts.

LTA and PUB staff had taken upon themselves to go beyond their job scope – LTA in proactively reaching out to relevant parties for follow-up, PUB in moving in to rectify the issue in a timely manner. If they had not done so, MSO would not know better as an additional day or two taken would not affect their KPIs. And this is just one of many cases that they handle on a daily basis. But it is because of what they did, and collectively with other officers in our partner agencies – handling frontline customer services, carrying out operations on the ground, carrying out maintenance and rectification works – that we see a steady improvement in service delivery since MSO’s formation. The time taken to close cases involving multiple agencies has decreased continuously from 21 days when MSO first started in October 2014, to 12 days by the end of last year. Routing accuracy of feedback has also improved from around 85% in late 2014 to 88% by the end of last year.

Strengthening Collaborations with Town Councils

MSO also strengthened our partnership with the Town Councils, which play a key role in municipal service delivery in HDB estates. We have embarked on a number of initiatives together. First, we standardised feedback management processes. Then, we moved on to streamlining operations on the ground and establishing Standard Operating Protocols, such as the one for water issues between PUB and Town Councils. Recently, we connected the feedback management systems of MSO, those of our partner agencies, and those of all 16 Town Councils. This means that public feedback can now be transferred seamlessly between agencies and Town Councils via the systems, thus ensuring proper follow-up.

MSO has also conducted a series of Learning Journeys, where representatives from Town Councils and government agencies were brought together for learning. This fostered a better understanding of each other’s work and resulted in better alignment of the work processes and information-sharing for issues like high-rise littering which Dr. Faishal and Mr. Baey Yam Keng mentioned. Indeed, in one of the sessions we had with the National Environment Agency, the Town Council participants found it useful to learn how NEA deploys its cameras to capture high-rise littering offences, as well as some of NEA’s operational challenges. The coordination between the Town Council and NEA in addressing high-rise littering has improved as a result. Given the positive response, MSO is planning to expand the Learning Journeys to involve more agencies and Town Council officers.

Enabling our Partner Agencies to Achieve Better Productivity

As we continue to facilitate more collaborations between our partner agencies and Town Councils, we want to expand our role to an enabler, one who equips our agencies and Town Councils with tools to be more productive. This is particularly critical in view of the tightening labour market and technological disruptions. Municipal service delivery will need to adapt and take advantage of new technologies to be better and more efficient.

Many of MSO’s partner agencies have already started to leverage technology for service delivery. For example, SLA and GovTech have successfully completed a Proof of Concept on the use of drones and video analytics technology to automatically detect defects on State properties and land.

To enable our partner agencies to pursue more of such innovations, MSO has worked with MOF to set aside a fund of up to $5M a year to support inter-agency projects. This fund will be channelled towards the development of technological initiatives by our partner agencies to enhance productivity in municipal services. From May this year, agencies will be able to tap on this fund to develop their ideas fully. In this regard, MSO plays the role of a co-ordinator and a facilitator. We facilitate the participation of the relevant agencies, co-ordinate efforts and remove road-blocks to projects that cut across different agencies. We also aim to promote the application of one agency’s technology in other areas so that we can achieve greater benefit from the technology use.

For instance, MSO facilitated the development of a height sensor prototype for grass-cutting by GovTech, which measures the height of cut grass and uploads the data real-time as the contractor trims the grass. This allows the contractor to check his work against prescribed standards and perform rectification works if necessary before leaving the site. NParks officers can monitor the contractors’ work remotely, thus reducing the need for physical inspection. A better outcome for grass-cutting is achieved with fewer man-hours required.

Following the successful trial, MSO will work with SPRING to find a commercial solution to the prototype. We look forward to working with the private sector (including SMEs) in commercialising the sensor. We hope to help our partner agencies develop an innovative idea into a workable solution and enable the private sector to participate in the innovation.

Facilitating Proactive Management of Issues

Good municipal services should go beyond merely responding quickly to feedback. Managing municipal issues upstream and anticipating operational requirements can better address public concerns. We agree with Mr Baey that integrated data has great potential in this aspect. As a start we have leveraged our integrated feedback management system to study data received across agencies to better identify the location, timing and the cause of key issues. We can deep dive into these hotspots to identify the root causes and devise holistic measures to address them.

An example that I’ll like to quote, through our data analytics, is a strong correlation that we have identified, between incidents of stray dogs reported with the start of construction sites. Our analysis have shown that the clearance of forested land, which precedes construction, would drive dogs out of their habitat, and food waste from construction site might be a source of food for the dogs. Based on these findings, AVA worked with HDB to establish an arrangement to trap stray dogs before and after infrastructure works, as well as to check the canteen areas in HDB construction sites to ensure proper food waste disposal. AVA also worked with their Animal Welfare Group (AWG) partners to rehome suitable trapped dogs.

We also developed the Municipal Services Dashboard with GovTech, which allows government and Town Council to access visual representations of a whole range of cases by location, by time, by block and so on. This allows them to view patterns and trends which in turn gives them useful information for operations planning. With better planning in terms of timing and frequency, our agencies can provide comprehensive, responsive and effective municipal services.

Going forward, apart from feedback data and in line with what Mr Baey said, MSO will also be working with agencies to facilitate other kinds of data sharing such as camera footages to improve the resolution of municipal issues.

Conclusion

Ultimately, MSO’s work is not merely about improving agency coordination. What we hope to achieve is in fact a deeper, cultural transformation: to change how agencies work and how they collaborate with one another. We want to create a work environment where agencies feel supported to explore new ways of doing things and try out new technologies; a culture where openness and empathy is the norm; a system where different parts of the Government work well together and collaborate with the private sector and the community.

And at the heart of our work is our many officers who believe in providing good efficient services to the public – officers who take pride in their work; officers who go the extra mile in serving the public; officers serving with honour. I would like to end off by giving credit to their efforts. Since my involvement with MSO, I have been consistently impressed by the enthusiasm and positive attitudes taken by the officers of our partner agencies who needed little persuasion to work towards the goals of MSO. Once constraints such as inter-organisational boundaries and limitations in resources were alleviated with our help, the staff quickly adjusted their work processes on the ground and took up their new responsibilities willingly and with urgency. I have received many compliments from different people on the prompt and thorough follow-ups by agency officers. Hence, I would like to record my gratitude to all the staff of our agencies for their positive attitude and service to the public. We in MSO can do what we do only because of their cooperation and dedication. Thank you.