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Service Delivery Issues Being Addressed in Public Sector

By: , October 6, 2017

The Key Point:

Service delivery issues are being addressed across the public sector through the establishment of customer improvement plans and teams within ministries.
Service Delivery Issues Being Addressed in Public Sector
Photo: Mark Bell
Principal Director of the Modernisation Programmme Implementation Unit of the Public Sector Transformation and Modernisation Division, Office of the Cabinet, Wayne Robertson.

The Facts

  • This was noted by the Principal Director of the Modernisation Programme Implemention Unit, PSTMD, Office of the Cabinet, Wayne Robertson, during an interview with JIS News.
  • “We recognise that we have to address those weaknesses contained in the assessment, and we have to monitor plans to ensure that it happens,” Mr. Robertson said.

The Full Story

Service delivery issues are being addressed across the public sector through the establishment of customer improvement plans and teams within ministries.

The Public Sector Transformation and Modernisation Division (PSTMD), which was created to streamline activities aimed at boosting government efficiency, has been engaging technocrats in ministries to formalise their service improvement plans.

This was noted by the Principal Director of the Modernisation Programme Implemention Unit, PSTMD, Office of the Cabinet, Wayne Robertson, during an interview with JIS News.

Mr. Robertson said that work is under way at the Ministries of Health; Education, Youth and Information; Transport and Mining; and National Security. He said that ministries must also establish baseline data so that they can measure their performance periodically.

“We recognise that we have been talking about service improvement over the years, but it has never been entrenched in the planning process of the ministries. It is said what gets monitored gets done,” he said.

“We want to ensure that there is a customer service improvement plan for each ministry. We will start with the parent ministries first, and it will subsequently cascade down to the portfolio entities,” Mr. Robertson added.

He noted that the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries is the only entity to have done its improvement plan. “However, it needs to now be signed off by the Permanent Secretary for it to be completed,” he said.

The establishment of improvement plans follows an assessment of the status of customer service across the public sector by the Office of the Cabinet in 2014.

The assessment had provided quantitative and qualitative data of service experience in seven areas of government – health, social welfare, agriculture, national security and immigration, justice, revenue services, and industry and investment.

Mr. Robertson said the feedback from users and providers of services gave insight into existing systems and capacities for service delivery in five areas, namely, service/product delivery, access and facilities, communications, payment processes, and service standards.

“The survey indicated that, in general, customers require more of government. It gave the performance of each sector. We have been using that data to guide how it is we interface with the ministries,” he said.

To sustain the improvement plans, he said that each ministry will be mandated to appoint a responsible officer, as well as a customer service improvement team, “to drive the reform within each ministry”.

“We recognise that we have to address those weaknesses contained in the assessment, and we have to monitor plans to ensure that it happens,” Mr. Robertson said.

Last Updated: October 6, 2017

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