Measures to Help Landscape Maintenance Companies and Their Service Buyers Transit into Progressive Wage Model and Outcome-based Procurement Regime

29 Mr Abdul Samad asked the Minister for National Development in light of the announcement on the Progressive Wage Model for the landscape maintenance industry (a) what efforts are being undertaken to encourage service buyers in the landscape sector to adopt outcome-based contracts instead of traditional headcount-based contracts; (b) whether there are plans to publish a service buyer’s guide on progressive procurement practices for the landscape sector; and (c) what support is being provided to landscape companies towards industry transformation.

Mr Desmond Lee: NParks encourages service buyers in the landscape sector to adopt performance-based contracts, by providing them with guidance on relevant procurement practices. NParks is also supporting the Landscape Industry Association of Singapore in developing a service buyer’s guide for the landscape sector, to help facilitate the shift towards performance-based contracts.

As a major service buyer itself, NParks also awards performance-based contracts for landscape maintenance services. NParks evaluates tender proposals for these contracts based on the quality and price of the proposals, with the quality criterion taking into account the tenderers’ ability to deliver service outcomes. NParks has been increasing its emphasis on service outcomes in these contracts, by steadily increasing the weightage of the quality criterion in its tender evaluations from 20% to the current 40% over the last 10 years.

NParks also ensures that tenderers train their employees sufficiently to deliver good service outcomes, by requiring tenderers bidding for its landscape maintenance contracts to be registered in the Landscape Company Register (LCR) for at least two consecutive years. Companies on the LCR are required to fulfil the conditions of the Progressive Wage Model for the landscape sector, including training their employees appropriately for their job scopes.

To support the development of the sector, NParks launched the 10-year Landscape Sector Transformation Plan (LSTP) in May 2019 to digitalise, mechanise and professionalise the sector. Since the LSTP was launched, NParks has worked with stakeholders in the landscape industry and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to further support the sector’s transformation efforts.

For example, NParks has been working with IHLs to enhance their existing courses and develop new training programmes for landscape students and employees. This will allow trainees to learn a wider range of landscaping skills, including the use of mechanisation and digitalisation to improve productivity.

In January this year, NParks also launched a pilot to use various digital technologies to manage greenery and parks in the Ang Mo Kio-Bishan area. NParks is leveraging this pilot to familiarise and train the landscape sector’s companies and professionals, as well as students who will eventually join the sector, in the use of these tools and technologies, which will improve productivity and reduce the need for manual labour. When the pilot concludes, NParks will work with the sector to deploy these technologies progressively as part of NParks’ park and greenery management contracts across Singapore.