COS 2016: Speech by Minister Grace Fu "Working Together to Deliver Better Services"

Apr 11, 2016

Madam Chair, thank you for allowing me to speak.

Introduction

A famous writer once wrote: “What is essential is invisible to the eye” . Municipal services are a bit like that. They are often overlooked, like having a clean pavement to walk on or a damaged railing repaired promptly. But these are essential things in our living environment.

It has been slightly over a year since the MSO was formed to work with various agencies to improve these essential services. Let me share an update on our progress in response to Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Mr Ong Teng Koon.

Looking back on First Year of Establishment

In our recent survey, 77% of residents indicated that they are satisfied with municipal services in their neighbourhoods. This is a good base to build on.

For feedback that involves multiple agencies, MSO is actively improving the work process. You may have read about the case concerning the cleanliness of waters around Marina Country Club earlier this year. Litter accumulated on the waters and an adjoining temporary drain, making the area look unsightly. MSO brought together the relevant agencies - MPA, NEA, PUB, SLA - and facilitated a coordinated response. With the SLA fronting the operations, the agencies cleaned the area and embarked on constructing a permanent drain. The agencies also agreed on procedures to address future cases.

Mr Alex Yam and Mr Chong asked about our challenges. Complex cases like this are inevitable and invariably taking longer to resolve. But through systematic culling of issues, one by one, ascertaining responsibility, facilitating coordination, we have reduced the average time taken to close such complex cases that require multiple agencies to work together by about eight days over the last year, from 21 to 13 days .

Strengthening Existing Initiatives: Providing You with a Better Feedback Experience & the Information You Need

Improving response time to feedback is not our only goal. We have also been working to make it more convenient for the public to get to us on municipal issues. MSO launched the OneService App in January last year.

Several MPs asked about the public response to the app. More than 55,000 users have registered. More than 31,000 cases were submitted.

Many users have found the app useful. In February this year, Mr Darren Siow used the OneService App to report on a pothole along Thomson Road, without having to identify the owner of the problem, and this is what he said, “The efficient OneService ecosystem of receiving reports, assigning cases to the relevant agency and the resolution of issues is indeed praiseworthy.”

Indeed, digital channels such as mobile apps and web portals make it easier for the public to provide feedback, and speed up our response process. There has been a four-fold increase in the proportion of municipal feedback received via digital channels over the past year, from about 3% – a low base, to about 12%. Specifically 5% of feedback was received via the OneService App. MSO and our partner agencies will continue to improve our digital channels.

OneService App enhancements

We have received suggestions on the App and introduced several enhancements. These include adding new reporting categories and push notifications on the status of the cases. Many MPs wanted to know our upcoming plans. This year, we will introduce a new crowdsourcing feature to collect information that helps our agencies address municipal issues for which users do not expect a reply.

We will pilot crowdsourcing in the retrieval of abandoned supermarket trolleys. I am sure many of us have encountered the odd supermarket trolley at void decks or walkways, which caused obstruction or was being used as a litter dump.

To address such problems, MSO is working with five supermarket chains on an initiative called “Spot Abandoned Trolleys”. This feature will be available on the OneService App by the end of this month and it marks a milestone in extending our partnership beyond Government agencies to the private sector.

So when you next see an abandoned trolley, simply use the OneService App to submit its location. We will pump the data to the supermarkets which will go round to collect them periodically. This is a win-win arrangement – for residents there will be fewer abandoned trolleys in the community; for supermarkets they will be able to retrieve their trolleys more efficiently.

If the “Spot Abandoned Trolleys” initiative works well, we will look at expanding crowdsourcing arrangements to other municipal issues.

OneService Portal

Besides the OneService App, MSO will be introducing the OneService Web Portal in the latter half of the year. This will be a one-stop platform that aggregates relevant information from our partner agencies that affects your neighbourhood, such as dengue clusters in your neighbourhood, HDB block-cleaning schedules in your precinct, and traffic incidents in the surrounding area.

You can also report and track your feedback on either the App or Web Portal through the same account. We hope our efforts will make it even easier for you to interact with Government agencies on issues relating to you and your neighbourhood. Of course, residents can still submit feedback to agencies via existing channels.

Moving beyond Feedback: Improving Service Delivery & Operations

Mr Chong asked if MSO would look into improving processes and workflows. During the Budget debate, Dr Tan Wu Meng similarly called for better coordination on the ground. Indeed, MSO will focus on improving the coordination between agencies in operations this year.

Improving the way Government agencies work together

Having a lead agency as your point-of-contact helps us to ensure timely response to your feedback. AVA has been the First Responder for animal-related issues since 2012. As Mr Baey Yam Keng mentioned, MSO facilitated the centralisation of public greenery maintenance under NParks last year. NParks has been taking over the greenery maintenance functions in phases, starting with grass-cutting. From June this year, NParks will be taking over other forms of greenery maintenance from HDB, SLA and PUB.

Mr Baey also asked that MSO look into other functions that cut across agencies to better streamline processes. I am happy to announce that from June this year, LTA will be the First Responder for feedback on the maintenance of connectivity-related infrastructure. What are they? It means that if you see a damaged footpath or sheltered linkway, and are unsure of whom to contact, you can use the OneService App, which will route such cases to LTA to assess and lead in the response.

As First Responder, LTA will promptly attend to cases of public safety concerns to mitigate the risks. For instance, LTA was recently alerted to a footpath damaged by tree roots in front of Hong Kah Secondary School. LTA immediately inspected the site, and placed safety cones to warn pedestrians of the hazard. Together with NParks, both agencies worked together on the repair works.

For non-emergencies, LTA will also be a first point-of-contact and coordinate the issue although the repair might be done by another agency.

As for other cross-cutting issues, including the issue of pest control mentioned by Mr Baey, given their complexity and local context involved, we will accumulate experience and knowledge as we go through the cases, helping the agencies to solve local cases, one-by-one. We will explore how to improve on the processes and look at the systemic improvement over time.

Strengthening collaboration with TCs: TC Working Arrangements

It is not enough for MSO to work with just the Government agencies, as more than 80% of Singaporeans live in HDB estates which are managed by Town Councils. We started a pilot with Jurong-Clementi and Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Councils last year to align the feedback management process between Town Councils and agencies. To answer Mr Ong and Mr Baey, the pilot was a success. For instance, MSO co-created a manual with the pilot Town Councils and our agencies to clarify responsibilities for common municipal issues and facilitate prompt referrals. This is to ensure that residents’ feedback will be promptly attended to, regardless of who they first approach.

A number of MPs asked about our plans following the pilot. I am glad to update that we have invited all 16 Town Councils to participate and they have all agreed to come on-board. Each Town Council has its unique processes and systems, and we will need time to work with each of them to ease the transition. We will progressively bring the Town Councils on-board from now to Q4 the year. This means that by the end of this year, residents across the island will be able to benefit from the closer coordination between Town Councils and Government agencies.

Similar to our approach with the agencies, we have also moved beyond feedback management to collaborate on operations.

Several municipal issues require the Government and Town Councils to work closely together. One example is water leakage from pipe fittings in HDB blocks. When residents call PUB to report on a pipe leakage, often without a clear description of the location of the leak, PUB has to visit the site. If the leakage occurs within the segment of the pipe under the Town Council’s care, PUB will temporarily stop the leak and refer the case to the Town Council for proper repair. Two sets of technicians are often involved before the repair is done. It leads to a delay in repair and wastage of labour.

To facilitate faster resolution, PUB and the pilot Town Councils tried a First Responder protocol last year. Under the protocol, they are assigned first responder roles for specified types of water-supply issues. So when a case on pipe leakage in Jurong East was reported to PUB in October last year, Jurong-Clementi Town Council attended to the feedback as the first responder for leaks in HDB estates and resolved it straightaway.

Similarly, MSO will look into improving the coordination between agencies and Town Councils for other issues like high-rise littering and pigeon feeding. However, our collaboration with Town Councils, as with other MSO initiatives, is not meant to and will not replace the functions of the Town Councils nor weaken their autonomy in service delivery.

Facilitating technology use across partner agencies

MSO and its partners are also leveraging technology and learning from each other to improve processes and productivity, which was what Mr Gan Thiam Poh, Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Mr Ong Teng Koon had asked about.

A good example is HDB, who used technology to manage their car park enforcement. Instead of conducting time-consuming and manpower-intensive physical checks on the location of their wardens, HDB has enhanced the Electronic Handheld Terminals used by the wardens to capture their locations. HDB officers can now focus on car park management such as addressing public feedback on illegal parking and obstruction of vehicles in car parks.

SLA has been harnessing technology to improve the efficiency of their land surveys. They have now started using a software application called Oblivision, which allows officers to inspect and even measure structures on a particular plot of land, without physically going to the site. MSO has also commenced work with SLA to see how we can extend Oblivision to other agencies to reduce labour-intensive site visits.

MSO is on a constant lookout for technologies that can help our agencies to deliver better and more efficient services.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as MSO moves into improving operations and productivity, many of our initiatives will be “invisible to the eye”. There will not be major infrastructure built or goodies given out. But through what we do, we constantly improve the essential services which define the quality of our living environment.

To do this, we will need to expand our network of partners, including private companies providing public services, like what Mr Baey asked for. While the Government does not regulate the operations and feedback management processes of private businesses, we are prepared to work closely with them and with all relevant partners, to improve our common spaces.

But most of all, we want to engage residents as our key stakeholders. In line with the call for Partnering for the Future, MSO will enable greater community partnership in municipal services. Residents have an important role to play - by alerting us to issues in your neighbourhood, by being an active and engaged resident, and by participating in community building. Together, we can create a better living environment, for one another and for the ones we love.