PUTRAJAYA (Sept 10): The Public Service Reform Agenda mooted by the Chief Secretary to the Government (KSN) Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar will focus on five key result areas and be strengthened with 20 strategies.
The five key result areas are appreciation of values and governance, human capital development, organisational development, service delivery, and empowering public and private synergies.
Speaking at the KSN Leadership Aspiration Programme here on Tuesday, Shamsul Azri said most of the key result areas are “low hanging fruits”, but some require medium- and long-term implementation.
As such, he said the government would adopt associated and integrated strategies, in a bid to realise the Public Service Reform Agenda.
“The associated strategy emphasises the whole-of-nation concept involving the private sector, while the integrated strategy emphasises the whole-of-government concept, which involves an integration of government departments and agencies,” he said.
Shamsul Azri said the reform agenda will be implemented using five approaches, namely developing strategic cooperation and synergy among the agencies involved, sharing resources optimally, improving service delivery, highlighting initiatives that provide a return on investment, as well as ensuring that every initiative implemented contributes directly to the Madani Economy goals.
He said by sharing resources optimally, it would be able to break the silo walls between various entities.
“The sharing of information and communication between departments should also be facilitated in order to speed up the implementation of the reforms we dream of,” he said.
The chief secretary said the Public Service Reform Agenda would also be empowered by two key enablers that will help map the success of public service reform, namely monitoring, measurement and performance evaluation; and total communication.
Under the first key enabler, Shamsul Azri hopes that the monitoring committees such as the Malaysia Madani Action Council (MTMM), the Special Task Force on Agency Reform (STAR), the Special Task Force on Business Facilitation (Pemudah) and the Service Delivery Monitoring Committee (JP4) can further strengthen the elements of the agenda.
He also suggested that a form of award, recognition or appreciation be created as an encouragement for ministries and civil servants to increase efficiency and make improvements.
“Call it something like the Public Service Reform Excellence Award, or any appropriate name. I am confident that this will boost their spirit to stay committed to improving their performance and service delivery, meet people’s expectations, and build a better future for Malaysians,” he said.
On the second key enabler which is total communication, Shamsul Azri called on the government to make improvements to the publicity aspect by creating strategic notifications by taking advantage of various platforms, especially social media.
“In making a plan, the aspect of publicity or, simply say, having the publicists to promote our initiatives, our improved services, the complaints that we have responded to, and so on, was often neglected.
“In our country, the number of active social media users is estimated to reach 26.8 million. Meaning, we have the same amount of space and opportunity to publicise what the public service and the government are doing,” he said.
The chief secretary also praised the strategic response shown by the Immigration Department in social media recently, which was described as a “show without telling” action to convey clearly that the department is serious about dealing with their customers’ complaints.
Therefore, Shamsul Azri said the government needs to have continuous engagement with the media, in addition to mainstreaming the media (corporate communication) teams in all ministries and departments.
“I am serious about this. For me, the media team in ministries and government departments must master and be at the forefront of cyberspace.
“They need to understand the spirit and philosophy of each initiative and aspiration by the government. Therefore, it is important that this team is equipped with the latest media competencies, equipment and facilities, especially related to social media,” he added.
Also present at the programme was Communications Ministry secretary general Datuk Mohamad Fauzi Md Isa, and the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) chief executive officer Nur-ul Afida Kamaludin.
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