|
3.6 The Economy Drive initiatives implemented by public
agencies in FY2004 produced nearly $500 million of savings.
A good example of a project that has both saved money
and improved service is MINDEF’s shared services
centre. This was set up in April 2003 to provide services
ranging from pre-enlistee services to finance, human
resource and training services. The centre employs 530
staff, servicing a customer base of 85,000 active personnel
as well as another 300,000 NSmen and 65,000 employers
for NS payment matters. The shared services centre has
transformed the way MINDEF performs common administrative
services, and created new value and convenience for
its customers. By bringing together the various services
into a single centre, MINDEF has improved service standards,
and saved or avoided $4 million in costs in the first
one and a half years.
3.7 We plan to roll out to the rest of the public sector
this idea of aggregating common services. We should
centralise the common administrative support services
of different ministries. Public sector agencies are
already aggregating their demand for common goods and
services to get better prices. For instance, 30 public
sector agencies recently aggregated their demand to
procure their electricity supply for 2005 and will realise
savings of $8 million.
3.8 The Government’s Economy Drive is supported
by the Cut Waste Panel, which receives feedback and
suggestions from the public. To date, the Cut Waste
Panel has received over 3,100 suggestions and agreed
with 85% of them. One writer had suggested that monthly
CPFIS statements were too frequent and should be reduced.
The CPF Board has therefore started to issue such statements
every six months, saving nearly $0.5 million a year.
Such suggestions help to keep the public sector efficient
and on its toes, and I encourage the public to submit
more.
|
