Speech by Minister Grace Fu at the Municipal Services Awards Ceremony

Oct 26, 2017

A very warm welcome to all of you. Thank you for joining us at the third Municipal Services Awards Ceremony. I am happy to see so many of you here today. Besides Government agencies and Town Councils, we also have community partners here with us today, showing how the OneService Community is growing to include more stakeholders.

Good Municipal Service Delivery Requires Both Hardware and Heartware

Today we are gathered here to celebrate the achievements of our officers who have demonstrated high standards of service excellence and gone the extra mile to serve the community; teams across agencies who have worked together to deliver systemic solutions and adopted a “do-it-first” attitude in serving the residents; community partners who have taken the initiative to serve their communities and their people, working together with Government agencies and Town Councils. 

It is encouraging that we have received more nominations for the award this year. It shows the importance we place on the award and our appreciation for the teamwork and service dedication displayed by our colleagues. 68 officers and teams were nominated this year, a 50% increase over the 44 we received for the first Municipal Services Awards in 2015.

This year, 11 teams and four individuals will be receiving the Municipal Services Award under the “Team”, “Individual” and “Community” categories. I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to all the 15 award recipients and commend you for your excellent work. You exemplify the spirit of public service, placing the interests of the community at the centre of your work. You underscore the point that good municipal service delivery is not just about making sure the hardware is working. It’s also about building the “heartware” – understanding the needs of the local community, and exercising care and concern in meeting these needs. 

In the interest of time, I can only mention the good work of two award recipients. But I am sure the other teams who were awarded or nominated have done very good work as well.

Going Beyond the Call of Duty, Serving with Heart and Caring for the Community

The first example is that of Ms Nornadira Hadi, an SPF officer who was assigned to look into feedback from members of the public about youths loitering, trespassing into work sites, and causing nuisance and dis-amenities to the residents. It is rather typical, to hear of youths loitering and making a nuisance of themselves in our estates. Ms Nornadira did not choose to deal with it as just an enforcement case. Instead, she sought to understand their family backgrounds and engage their parents.

Assessing that the youths and their families needed social support, Ms Nornadira collaborated with local community partners to engage and foster a bond with these youths. She also followed up regularly to ensure that they were receiving the necessary support. Thanks to Ms Nornadira and the community partners, the situation of the youths and their families improved. This addressed the root cause of the issue, bringing about a more effective, long-lasting and sustainable solution. 

Ms Nornadira, like our award recipients today, served with her heart. And this has made a difference – to the lives of the youths, their families, and the community she serves. 

Government, Town Councils, and Active Communities Coming Together to Develop Effective Municipal Solutions
 
The second point I wish to make is that when the local community gets involved, and work with Government agencies and Town Councils, we can provide more effective municipal solutions that meet the needs of the community. Each party plays a critical role. With a common purpose, we can do much more together, in providing a complete solution. 

It is for this reason that MSO has introduced a new “Community Category” in the Municipal Services Awards this year, to recognise the importance of engaging ground-up efforts by the community. We have received a good response with many nominations even for the inaugural run. I certainly look forward to more collaboration between the Government, Town Councils and local communities in future.

An example from this category is one from Kembangan-Chai Chee where grassroots volunteers formed a team to provide social support and welfare to residents who displayed tendencies to hoard things in their homes. We all have our experiences with residents hoarding things in their homes. It is a complex issue, for example, when do government agencies step in, how do we support the residents. It needs multiple stakeholders to come in together to provide a comprehensive solution. For this case, it has certainly created dis-amenities such as smell, pests and fire hazards. Hoarding cases are extremely difficult to resolve as they often involve deeper underlying issues and require extensive assistance. 

To help these residents, the team stepped forward and worked with Government agencies including NEA and HDB, the Marine Parade Town Council, and community social organisations to address issues faced by the residents. They organised clean up sessions and fumigated the flats, and roped in South East Community Development Council and Agency for Integrated Care to train their volunteers in dealing with the residents. The team also worked with Eastern Health Alliance, MSF Social Service@Bedok, PPIS  Family Service Centre East and Filos  Community Services.

In doing so, the local community stepped up to support vulnerable individuals in their midst by working with Government agencies, the Town Council and community organisations. This is truly “kampong spirit”, beyond the sharing of food and celebrating festivities together, being displayed in our modern urban living.

Singapore as a Smart Nation – Developing Good Systems to Support Municipal Service Delivery

To support our staff and the community leaders better, we are putting in place systems and technologies. As PM Lee outlined in his National Day Rally speech this year, Singapore needs to seize the opportunities technology presents to develop better systems to bring about greater convenience to the lives of our residents. 

MSO is well-placed to support our move towards a Smart Nation, by developing technological solutions that can be used in a people-centric way to improve the living environment. One such example is the OneService App, which provides a single platform for residents to provide feedback on all municipal issues – without the need to know which agency or Town Council is in charge. MSO has been enhancing the App with new features. The Case Map  has been enhanced to show the status of feedback cases. It used to be just red pins, now there are different coloured pin drops for the feedback cases.  With this enhancement, users will know the cases that the agencies have taken on across the island and the cases that are being worked on, and the cases where work has been completed. Residents can also view the progress of the feedback they submitted via the new “Case Tracker”, which also indicates the agency that has been assigned to work on the case.

To date, the App has already garnered over 100,000 registered users, with some 130,000 feedback cases reported. It has made the process of providing feedback on municipal matters more convenient, and helped Government agencies and Town Councils to address municipal issues more responsively.

MSO is also using technology to make it easier for residents to retrieve information about their living environment. Building greater awareness is the first step towards building engaged and active communities.

At last year’s Municipal Services Award Ceremony, we launched the OneService Portal, a one-stop portal for residents to obtain information on municipal matters. Users can select their neighbourhoods, like the lovely neighbourhood in Jurong East that is shown on screen, and retrieve local information such as the presence of dengue clusters, construction works, block and hawker centre washing schedules, which is very useful if there is one that you patronise frequently, as well as feedback cases submitted.

This year, we have further enhanced the Portal to include a new “Attend Events” feature. This aggregates all the events of participating agencies and provides residents with comprehensive information on activities happening around their neighbourhood. Events could include HDB’s Welcome Parties for new launches, NParks’ guided nature walk, and Youth Corps’ volunteering opportunities, a wonderful opportunity to spend a meaningful weekend. Residents can choose to attend the events together with their families, neighbours and friends, thus bringing people together and laying the foundation for building social capital.

One Service, an Engaged Community, for a Better Living Environment

To provide effective and efficient municipal services require committed officers with a heart for the residents, active communities who step forward to get involved, and good systems to support their work. Indeed, creating a better living environment for our residents is a never-ending journey that requires continuous effort from all of us. 

MSO will continue to support and facilitate the good work of all our stakeholders in improving municipal service delivery and to develop better systems to bring about greater convenience for residents. Together, let us work towards ‘One Service, an Engaged Community, for a Better Living Environment’. Thank you.