Cutting Inefficiency across Ministries
Prime Minister's OfficeSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Member of Parliament Mr Kwek Hian Chuan Henry’s inquiry regarding projects to reduce inter-ministry inefficiency and the Smart Nation office’s timeframe for using technology to streamline interagency work. Minister Ong Ye Kung highlighted long-standing automation efforts such as RFID tags in libraries and automated checkpoint clearances, alongside newer tools like chatbots and Natural Language Processing to improve feedback handling. He noted that such technology led to specific process changes, such as the Housing and Development Board’s revised key collection system allowing homeowners to select their own dates. Minister Ong Ye Kung also detailed integrated platforms like the OneService App and the "Moments of Life" initiative, with the latter’s first phase for parents launching by mid-2018. He concluded that leveraging digital technology to re-engineer workflows is a continuous, ongoing commitment to enhance citizen-centric services across the Government.
Transcript
64 Mr Kwek Hian Chuan Henry asked the Prime Minister (a) what key projects are being carried out to cut inefficiency across Ministries; and (b) whether the Smart Nation office has a timeframe for getting interagency work to be reduced in time and effort by using technology.
Mr Ong Ye Kung (for the Prime Minister): Since the 1980s, the Government has been using automation technology to do our work more efficiently and serve Singaporeans better. Our national libraries use radio-frequency identification tags to track the borrowing, return and sorting of books, and provide access to a wide range of e-resources online; checkpoints at Woodlands and Tuas have automated capabilities to clear motorcyclists and pillion riders; and our hospitals use automated medication dispensing systems.
As digital technology advances, more opportunities will arise for our agencies to re-engineer processes, streamline workflows and serve the public better.
One important task of many agencies is to respond to public feedback and queries. They can be voluminous. We want to address simple queries quickly, while paying more attention to difficult cases. To help us do this, we have deployed chatbots to handle calls and queries from the public. We are also using Natural Language Processing to spot patterns in feedback and make upstream process changes. For example, the Government Technology Agency ran textual analysis on feedback emails sent by the public to the Housing and Development Board (HDB). This generated the insight that key collection was a major issue. As a result, HDB changed its key collection process from assigning dates to home owners to allowing them to select a date to collect their keys.
Digital technology also enables the integration of Government functions across agencies. The OneService App allows citizens to report municipal issues involving multiple agencies on a single portal, without having to access individual agencies’ websites and call centres. But the app is just the front end. It needs to be accompanied by policy and process changes in order for efficiencies to be reaped and services to the citizen improved. We are taking a similar approach to build citizen-centric services around "Moments of Life" (MoL), delivering relevant Government digital services to individuals based on specific moments in their lives, such as the birth of a child. The first phase of the MoL app, centered around parents with young children, will be rolled out by mid-2018. We are also exploring other life moments to cluster services around and will provide more information on this in due course.
The Government is fully committed to using digital technology and continually improving our processes and workflows to serve the public better. This is an ongoing effort.