Public service is about working with citizens to "achieve better outcomes"

Kimberly Spykerman Channel NewsAsia 14 Nov 13;

SINGAPORE: Placing citizens at the centre of what the public service does is more than just delivering good service.

It is also about creating opportunities for Singaporeans to go beyond being customers to being partners, collaborators, and co-creators in achieving better public outcomes.

This was the message from Head of the Civil Service Peter Ong to public servants on Thursday.

Mr Ong said: "To truly be citizen-centric, we will increasingly need to work across multiple agencies as one public service. We must put aside differences in organisational cultures and divisions of responsibilities to give our citizens seamless and coherent experiences."

Mr Ong was speaking at an awards ceremony that recognises innovative ideas and projects by public officers and agencies that have made an impact within and beyond their organisations.

And to promote further innovation across the entire public service, Project Tomorrow was launched on Thursday to harness the ideas of all public officers.

They will be encouraged to make suggestions beyond their own agencies and develop government-wide solutions.

They can submit their ideas and suggestions through a mobile app, and these will be made available on the government intranet for other officers to comment, vote or improve on.

- CNA/gn