KUCHING: Civil servants should have an innovative-driven mindset that will boost their productivity and delivery efficiency.
“Productivity is the trigger for change, the game changer in the country’s economic recovery. However, productivity will not be achieved by itself. Productivity growth exists through carefully planned actions,” said Sarawak Federal Secretary Datuk Amir Omar.
“Hence, government departments and agencies are called to plan and take appropriate measures to formulate strategies and implement actions to enhance productivity as well as to establish a productivity measurement system that is appropriate to the results produced.”
He said this during a sharing session in conjunction with e-Productivity Day and Sarawak Public Service Innovation Month 2021 on Thursday (Oct 14).
Amir pointed out that changes in the economic and environmental landscapes at the global and domestic levels due to the pandemic should be seen as an opportunity for the civil service to transform conventional ways of working to new methods that were appropriate in facing current and future challenges.
“An agile workforce as well as flexibility in adapting to the situation is important in times of crisis. Thus, civil servants are increasingly able to adapt to change and are able to maintain work productivity.
“This is because the trust given by the people and stakeholders in public sector governance is used as a motivation for them to provide quality services based on first class smart services.
“Additionally, the public sector in our country has undergone various reforms and reform initiatives. Among them are downsizing initiatives through privatisation policies, changes in organisational structure, systems and procedures, increased productivity as well as service delivery and quality improvement programmes,” he said.
He explained that reforms and innovations in the administrative system were essential to creating an efficient, effective and productive public service.
“The extent to which a government and its administration are efficient and effective depends on the community’s assessment and perception of the quality of service delivery of government agencies, as well as Local Authorities (PBT) which play an equally important role.
“This is because the majority of the people deal with local authorities, whether Municipal Council, City Hall or District Council.
“Local authorities must strive to be a government agency that is responsible, transparent and responsive to all the wants and needs of the people, whether for individuals in the local community, or the business community,” he added.
Amir also noted that the time has come for all civil servants to work together in supporting the national agenda on the implementation of digital government or electronic government.
“For example, focus should be given to the digitisation of government service delivery by leveraging on the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) which leads to end-to-end online services.
“Through this method, citizens no longer have to attend government agencies and services are obtained entirely online, and can be accessed anytime as well as anywhere.
“Hence, I urge all civil servants to support and participate in initiatives based on digitalisation, innovation, and productivity by the MPC such as MalaysiaMudah or MyMudah, Behavioral Insights (BI), Good Regulatory Practice (GRP), Nexus Digital Productivity (DPN) and other similar programmes.”
