COS 2015 - Speech by Minister Grace Fu "Putting People at the Heart of our Service"

Mar 10, 2015

Mdm Speaker, Minister Khaw told us a moving tale of five families about our Government’s commitment to home ownership. Indeed, quoting the Chinese saying “治国应以安民”. Governing a nation is about housing its people. It’s about providing a home, a place where you feel safe, and where you belong. But there’s a second part to the phrase – “得民作为根本”. It’s not just about the hardware but it’s also about winning the hearts of our people, and the software in managing our living environment forms the basis of the Municipal Services Office (or MSO).

Mr Seng Han Thong, Dr Lily Neo and Mr Baey Yam Keng, during the Budget debate, have called for better delivery of public services. We agree. Our people deserve more efficient, responsive and empathetic service. “以民为本”, putting people at the heart of our work, is what MSO aims to achieve.

Municipal Issues and Network of Agencies

We experience municipal issues daily. Take a typical day – you leave for work in the morning. It had rained earlier, and water is overflowing from the drains onto the footpath. You notice that some drain gratings have been damaged, which required you to step over to avoid tripping, and while you hold on to the railing, you found that it has loosened. You wonder, should I report these defects, and if so, who should I call?

These are day-to-day issues that affect the quality of our living environment. And these are the municipal services that MSO is focusing on.

Naturally, in a bureaucracy that is as extensive and complex as the Public Service today, responsibilities do overlap or reside with different agencies. As a result, members of the public may find themselves having to deal with multiple agencies over a single issue. It can be frustrating.

By working closely with our partner agencies, MSO aims to ensure that your municipal feedback is properly acted on. Our focus is to make systemic improvements, so that the Government, as a whole, can serve you better.

MSO selected eight partner agencies as a start, but why these eight, asked Mr Gan Thiam Poh. Based on the public feedback received, we looked across the Government, analysed the nature of the issues and identified the eight agencies with the most public touch points, handling the more common municipal services. Collectively, they handle around 42,000 municipal cases every month, or more than 1,400 cases a day.

It has been five months since MSO “opened shop”. To address the questions raised by Mr Charles Chong and Dr Janil Puthucheary and Ms Denise Phua, our priority has been to improve customer service – to provide greater convenience, to improve response time, and to offer better solutions to the public. Let me share these aspects with you in turn.

OneService Mobile App
 
First, convenience for the customer. To make it easier for you to report a problem, and we do want you to report the problem because this is your neighbourhood, we launched a mobile app, known as OneService (PDF 152.44KB), earlier in January. A/P Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim has asked for an update. So far, more than 14,000 profiles have been registered, and about 2,800 feedback were submitted.

To be customer-centric, the app organises the categories by issues, such as trees and greenery, roads and footpaths. There is no need for you to know which agency is responsible for the problem. Say in the case of a flooded footpath, you need only to take a photo of the site, select “roads and footpaths” category, and “submit”. That’s it.

Better still, you can use the geo-tagging function to let us know the exact location on a map. This way, agencies can attend to the issues quickly, which is an improvement over cases, say received over the phone or email, when imprecise information is sometimes conveyed.

Using the OneService app, Mr George Lim submitted a feedback about a loosened railing near a bus stop at Hillview Avenue. Upon receiving the precise location, the system routed the case to LTA for follow-up. The railing was repaired in less than five working days. Mr Lim wrote back to thank us and I quote his comment – “The centralised office has made things easier and less stressful to know which department that handles the matter”.

His comment validated our shift from an agency-based approach to an issues-based one. It’s not an easy move. It means breaking down silos amongst agencies, working closely with one another, and arriving at a consensus on how to deal with feedback.

But the effort is worth it. We hope more customers will find the OneService app convenient. Many have given useful suggestions, such as introducing more categories. We will consider all suggestions seriously as we work towards making the app more relevant and customer-friendly. To address Ms Phua’s query, the OneService mobile app is one of our pioneering efforts in proactively reaching out to the ground, and is a “signature” initiative that uses technology to improve customer experience.

That said, even as we engage the mobile-savvy generation, we are mindful of customers who prefer other channels, more conventional channels, of communication. The OneService app is meant to facilitate your interaction with us, but it doesn’t mean we are replacing existing channels. Our agencies’ emails and phone lines are still up and running, so you can contact the agencies that you are familiar with, if you so prefer.

Improving Feedback Management and Making Systemic Improvements

Next I’ll talk about delivering better response time and more holistic solutions. This is in relation to Ms Phua’s query about MSO’s service standards and our efforts in ensuring accountability, as well as Mr Charles Chong’s query about MSO’s role in resolving inter-agency issues.

MSO has introduced an integrated municipal feedback management system, this is a back-end system that sits away from front-facing operations, so it is not apparent to the public, but this is the system we have, that links across our partner agencies. A standard protocol was implemented to refer cases between agencies, and in replying and closing cases. It allows us to track the timeliness of our responses, regardless of where the feedback was first received. Over 2,000 customer service officers across our partner agencies have been trained to use this system and operate the protocol since August last year.

Also built into the system is a protocol of case escalation. This allows MSO to act on complex cases that involve multiple decision-makers across different agencies, as well as difficult cases where responsibility may be ambiguous.

To ensure accountability, we track such complex cases, and actively facilitate their resolution. Take for instance a recent request from a resident to install lightings along a footpath at Toa Payoh Lorong 8. The resident was worried for pedestrians’ safety when it gets dark.

This footpath runs along a canal, and is a maintenance access used by PUB for drainage maintenance work. Although PUB did not build it for public use, it has agreed to support the installation of lightings in view of public safety. To implement the solution quicker, MSO got PUB to tag along NParks’ lighting upgrading works, at an adjacent park connector, to install the required lightings, so that they don’t need to call a separate tender or get another contractor. This is a good example of how MSO has played a facilitator role.

Another example is the damaged drain gratings I mentioned earlier. In this case, unfortunately, the resident who reported the incident didn’t specify the exact location of the gratings, except that they were “somewhere along Commonwealth Ave West”, and that can be quite a long stretch. He also did not leave behind his contact details. It was difficult to act on an imprecise report, as drain gratings could be maintained by LTA or PUB.

Nevertheless, to resolve this quickly, PUB and LTA jointly inspected the site to fix all damaged drain gratings. So kudos to the agencies.

Recognising that such cases are not uncommon, MSO reviewed the work arrangements to see how best to resolve such feedback efficiently going forward. PUB agreed that if it receives such cases, it would adopt a “just do first” approach to conduct site inspections. PUB will then proceed with the repair works, or notify the relevant agency to follow up if it does not fall under its purview.

Both examples illustrate how MSO facilitated decision-making and process improvements among government agencies.

Improving Efficiency in Government

We believe that improving efficiency in the Public Service is beneficial to the public. We want to harness technology to enhance the relevance and effectiveness for service delivery. We’ve done this with the OneService mobile app.

Another area for efficiency is the centralisation of public greenery maintenance. As Mr Charles Chong and Mr Liang Eng Hwa have both pointed out, greenery-related issues are currently managed by different agencies depending on who owns the land. These could include NParks, HDB, PUB and SLA. Naturally, the different agencies end up engaging different contractors to maintain the greenery, sometimes in the same vicinity. This is not ideal and we can do better.

From June onwards, NParks will take over the role as the central agency for public greenery maintenance (PDF, 152.86KB) within Singapore, starting with grass-cutting works under SLA, PUB and HDB. This way, maintenance works can be made more efficient, and maintenance protocols can be better aligned. So next time if you encounter issues of such nature, you need only to contact NParks, and they will take care of the greenery matters for you. Mr Chairman, you have brought up the issue of cleaning dried leaves, whether it falls into the drain or road, or verge. You may like to know that DPC has been progressively taking over public cleanliness functions from all agencies, so NEA is the only agency that you will need to call.

Mr Liang also asked about coordinating with Town Councils and private land owners. Town Councils, which are autonomous bodies, and private developers or owners, will remain responsible for the areas under their purview. NParks cannot be expected to maintain their greenery for them, which is what one resident requested to do. In addition to asking NParks to trim the grass by hand so as not to damage his shrubs, he also demanded that NParks remove his tree in his own premises. It is unreasonable to expect NParks to accede to such requests, and I hope members of the public will understand why the Government cannot be your personal gardener. NParks is nevertheless prepared to consider suggestions to improve coordination of services between public land and adjacent land owners.

Partnering More Agencies and Town Councils

So what’s next? Earlier I mentioned the importance of having a strong network of agencies. This is also what Mr Charles Chong has enquired.

MSO will central agency for public greenery maintenance (PDF, 152.86KB) on 1 April, i.e. BCA, SLA and URA. These agencies also handle municipal issues as pointed out by Mr Chong, such as issues associated with construction activities and illegal parking. This addition will expand MSO’s scope of work and will allow us to look for greater improvements.

But not only government agencies handle municipal services. Dr Janil Puthucheary, Mr Charles Chong, and Dr Lily Neo raised an important point about coordinating with Town Councils, which manage the maintenance and cleanliness of HDB estates’ common areas.

Indeed, a sizable number of customers’ feedback on municipal issues are referred between government agencies and Town Councils.

Take for instance a recent feedback from a resident of Clementi West. He reported a car that could have been illegally modified and was generating excessive noise, and he also mentioned that motorbikes were parking illegally in his neighbourhood. As vehicles were involved in both issues, one might think that the feedback could be easily settled by one entity, such as LTA. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The motorbikes were parked at void decks, which came under the purview of Town Council. In the end, the Town Council agreed to take action to minimise illegal parking, and LTA agreed to check on the said car.

From this example, we can see that there are merits in improving the working relationships with Town Councils (PDF, 149.25KB) to enhance overall municipal service delivery. MSO is thus working with Jurong and Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Councils on a pilot trial to fine-tune feedback management protocols, with the view to extend the protocols to other Town Councils.

These include getting the agencies and Town Councils to a) acknowledge ownership of the cases referred to them; b) provide progress update on cases; and c) follow the MSO guidelines in resolving cases that involve multiple entities. All of which will ensure a better handshake and proper follow-through of cases.

The trial started this month. If successful, we will invite all Town Councils to participate in the working arrangements with MSO, without weakening Town Councils’ autonomy and authority in service delivery and in setting their service standards.

Encouraging Community Participation

Improving customer service on municipal issues goes beyond apps, systems and processes. It is important for us to build Heartware in addition to the Hardware and Software. This involves building relationships between agencies and people, and amongst people, between neighbours.

Building an engaged community is our ultimate aim, even as we seek improvements in customer service. We want the public to feel a sense of responsibility to their neighbours, and to take an interest in their living environment.

Managing feedback and complaints is the first step in building heartware, but it’s a vital building block, and an important start to a relationship – a first of many experiences. It can be a personal and at times, emotional experience to both parties – the party who gives the feedback and the party who receives it. That is why I am particularly thankful to the frontline and operations staff from all our partner agencies for their dedication and hard work. They have displayed great teamwork and service excellence in supporting our common goals.

MSO’s raison d'être is in improving delivery of public municipal services. We will not have major schemes, major grants, nor major investments. Instead, we are committed to putting customers – members of the public, Singaporeans – at the heart of our work. Little by little, step by step, we aim to deliver better, customer-centric municipal services – by making it more convenient for you to tell us what can be better, to respond to your feedback promptly, and to implement more holistic solutions by working closely with you and the community. We have just taken the first step, Mr Chairman, and we would like you and the rest of Singapore to join us in our journey as we make Singapore an even more liveable and endearing home.