Speech by SMS Sim at the Municipal Services Awards (MSA) 2022 Ceremony on 29 Nov at Gardens by the Bay
Nov 29, 2022
Introduction
Good afternoon, everyone. It is my pleasure to join you today at the Municipal Services Awards Ceremony. It certainly is wonderful to see everyone in person again after a three-year hiatus! Today we are here to celebrate and recognise the efforts of outstanding community partners, teams and individuals who have gone the extra mile to address municipal concerns on the ground and improve our living environment for our residents.
Keeping our living environment liveable and well-maintained matters greatly to all of us. Our partner agencies and Town Councils, together with the Municipal Services Office (MSO), strive to deliver resident-centric services in an efficient and seamless manner. Since the pandemic, our feedback volume has increased and remains high. We have worked together to address the challenges, even as resources are tightening. Municipal issues have also become more complex, resulting in longer resolution time for the extremely challenging cases and the need for multiple agencies to collaborate more closely across boundaries.
Despite these challenges, I am heartened to see that officers have gone beyond their call of duty to serve and address the needs of our residents. The pandemic has spurred us to find new and innovative ways to address municipal issues, to improve processes for better user experience and enhance productivity of our service delivery.
Building Synergies in Partnership with the Community
One of our key observations from the pandemic is that even as feedback has grown in number and complexity, so has the willingness of the community to step forward and participate in tackling the issues that they care about. This strengthening of community partnerships is very much aligned with the ongoing Forward SG efforts to refresh our social compact, where partner the community more closely to enhance and transform our living environment, and to build a more endearing home for all.
For example, MSO has worked with community partners to form an Alliance for Action (AfA) on responsible joss paper burning. We have also convened a Community Advisory Panel on neighbourhood noise. Both efforts have made some progress in shaping a more considerate and kinder community.
In fact, since the AfA embarked on its public education campaign to promote responsible joss paper burning, we have seen a significant 13% drop in feedback volume compared to the seventh Lunar Month last year. The feedback volume dropped back to 2015 levels, after several years of annual increase. Separately, the Community Advisory Panel recently submitted their recommendations to the Government on how we should manage neighbourhood noise. I am hopeful that their proposed community norms for residents to address noise concerns will help shape a quieter and more harmonious living environment. These are just two examples on how our partnerships with the community are important.
This year, we received a total of 124 nominations for the MSA, which is the highest number since the inauguration of MSA in 2015! It’s a testament of us having emerged stronger since the pandemic. Of these, we are awarding 23 recipients, many of whom are receiving awards under our two Community categories.
In fact, this year’s MSA has been enhanced to better recognise the growing role and importance of the community in addressing municipal issues. We introduced a new Love ‘Our Hood Award, expanded the nomination process for MSA Community category to the
community and appointed a panel of independent community stakeholders from the
OneService Kakis network to assess our community-related awards. A big thank you to Dr Willian Wan, Aarti, Gloria, Keith, Deliang and Kay Teck, who form this panel.
Love Our ‘Hood Award 2022 – Recognising Longstanding Community Members
The inaugural Love ‘Our Hood Award acknowledges sustained efforts from community
groups who consistently improve the local environment. There are two community groups who are being recognised today. One of them is Samantha Thian’s team behind the East Coast Beach Plan – Seastainable. Since 2017, it has rallied over 3,000 members to organise their own beach clean-ups at East Coast Park and document their activities. The team also has a Telegram chatbot and has collaborated with the Stridy app to allow participants to track their progress when participating in clean-up sessions. More than 20,000 kg of trash has been collected from the Park to date. This team is part of NParks’ “Friends of East Coast Park” network and also contributes to the East Coast Green Plan initiative.
The other recipient of our Award is the Cat Welfare Society, one of our oldest animal
welfare groups. Since its set up in 1999, the community group has been working relentlessly to address issues related to community cats and errant feeding in common areas. They have been recognised at the Municipal Services Awards multiple times for their work in handling over 3,500 cat-related cases across Singapore. Their work has expanded beyond addressing disamenities, to community mediation, management of cat population and public education on animal welfare and responsible pet ownership. Please give Samantha’s team and the Cat Welfare Society a round of applause for their efforts. Our heartiest congratulations to both teams for winning our inaugural Love ‘Our Hood Award.
MSA Community Category Awards – Efforts from the Ground
Beyond tackling disamenities on the ground, the community can work with our agencies to shape a more pleasant living environment at the planning stage. This helps foster stronger co-ownership and reduces disamenities created downstream. Take one of the winners of the MSA Community Category Awards for example. Bukit Gombak Grassroots Leaders worked with NParks and People’s Association to co-create Bukit Gombak Park, through consultations with residents and interest groups. The result is a beautiful space for visitors of all ages and opportunities for the community to experience gardening.
MSA Team Category Awards – The Importance of Inter-Agency Collaboration
Beyond community partners, every year, we also recognise our agencies for their
strong inter-agency collaboration efforts to address cross-cutting issues. Working together allows agencies to explore synergies and arrive at better solutions. For example, PUB, NParks, Marsiling-Yew Tee Town Council and the People’s Association have worked together to develop a sheltered linkway to Kranji Secondary School in partnership with the school and Limbang Citizens’ Consultative Committee. Despite challenges such as having to integrate the linkway into the Park Connector Network and to accommodate the pavement with the existing drainage system, the team pressed on, and after months of planning and construction, the linkway was completed, and it has since been well-received by users. Kudos to the Kranji team and all our Team Category award recipients! Thank you for displaying teamwork and the values that make OneService a reality.
MSA Individual Category Awards – Stellar Acts of Service
Today, we also recognise 2 individuals who have leaned forward to serve our
residents. Cheryl Wong from NParks’ can-do spirit has helped with resolving municipal issues including those that involve multiple parties. For example, on Christmas Eve last year, upon receiving the Town Council’s call for assistance on an animal-related issue in a residential unit, Cheryl worked closely with the Town Council to resolve the issue in a timely manner. Over the years, Cheryl has built strong rapport with the agencies she works with, and this has made it much easier for her to work closely with them to resolve issues. Our other individual recipient is Mervin Yeo from People’s Association. Mervin has experience managing complex and often unpleasant issues such as neighbourhood noise. In one instance, he managed to bring the neighbours together to resolve an issue of noise from neighbours through mediation. Many of us who have dealt with noise issues will appreciate the challenges in engaging the stakeholders involved. Congratulations to Cheryl and Mervin.
Conclusion
The good work that I have mentioned does not stop at today’s award recipients. I commend everyone for your contributions to the municipal landscape through your daily
efforts. As we move forward to a Singapore with an even stronger and renewed social
compact, where agencies and the community work together to improve our living environment,
I believe we have what it takes to overcome any challenge presented to us. Thank you all for
your contributions and for joining us here today. I look forward to continuing this journey of
service with all of you, to work towards our vision of an Engaged Community, to build a Better
Living Environment, and an Endearing Home for everyone! Thank you.