TWO INGREDIENTS IN EFFECTIVE SERVICE DELIVERY
Clear work processes and the will to act with integrity needed
MY grandmother often used to say in response to our protests against anything that is old fashioned: “Old is gold”. Perhaps, it is for this reason that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is revisiting a previous reform that he had instituted in the early eighties as fourth prime minister.
Recently, Dr Mahathir advised the public service to revive the work-procedure manual and desk file. These documents had previously detailed the tasks that needed to be accomplished by the job-holder. They were replete with graphical or pictorial representation of the workflows.
He contends that bereft of these guiding documents, some civil servants, especially the junior ones, would be lost as to what they should do to serve the public.
They have to often refer to their bosses for direction. That takes time and it delays the provision of services. The prime minister’s call will intensify efforts to clarify work processes for a speedier service delivery.
I am continually impressed whenever I visit, as a patient and visitor, the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre. At the reception counters and wards, a flow chart of the tasks required to render services is clearly displayed. It is simple enough for the patient and staff to understand without the mind-boggling medical jargon.
One major benefit of a flow chart to document work processes is that it offers visual clarity of the multiple steps, and their sequence, in public service provision. Communication and coordination of work are thereby strengthened. And should there be a hiccup, it will be easy to trace the source of the bottleneck. Making the workflow transparent can also contribute to eliminating redundancy and duplication
in work processes. This is amply demonstrated by the success of the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu), a key reform agency, in helping departments develop key performance indicators (KPIs), way back in 2005. To determine KPIs, Mampu worked with ministries to determine the work processes in service delivery.
This enabled efficiency, timeliness and quality at each level to be tracked. By documenting them, departments were able to eliminate needless tasks without compromising public services. The speeding up of public services owes much to this initiative.
Needless to say, the Immigration Department, one of the departments reviewed, now issues passports in one hour when previously it took as long as a month.
The implementation of ISO 9000 in 1996, an international standard for a quality management system, too, aided the documenting work processes. Such documentation is carried out on the premise that adhering to verified processes should ensure the quality of service delivery.
The booster shot for charting work processes by Dr Mahathir is timely.
As a business-friendly environment, Malaysia has jumped nine positions from 24th in 2017 to an enviable 15th among 190 countries in the 2019 World Bank Ease-of-Doing-Business Index.
We still have some way to go, though. Malaysia continues to under-perform.
For example, in the criterion of Starting a Business, Malaysia ranked a dismal 122. The reason is because of the long procedures involved. It takes 9.5 procedures and 13.5 days to register a new business in Malaysia. In contrast, it takes only two procedures and 1.5 days in Singapore and 3.5 procedures and 5.5 days in Brunei.
Documenting service-delivery processes should therefore alert departments to how their processes can be further streamlined.
Therefore it’s justified that Mampu relaunch its former initiative. In charting out the processes and procedures, Mampu can help ministries to re-examine their work processes with the view to cutting red tape. That should even put Malaysia higher on the ease-of-doing-business ranking.
While they focus on metrics and processes, ministries should not lose sight of another key ingredient that determines the efficacy of service delivery — the public-service culture. A public service that holds itself to the highest standards of service delivery and takes pride as a noble profession will surely augur well for better services.
Values, language, artefacts and behaviour constitute the bigger part of the culture of a nation or organisation. In the recent monthly assembly of staff of the Prime Minister’s Department, Dr Mahathir reiterated the values of the public service. These are diligence, trustworthiness, discipline and responsibility.
The motto “Malaysia Boleh” is said to inspire Malaysians to excel. Similarly, the language conveyed in the new song Malaysia Bersih should not just remain as lyrics. Civil servants should assimilate the values conveyed through them into their consciousness.
As Mahatma Gandhi once said: “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” For the values espoused in the lyrics to truly become a civil servant’s ethical compass, it will require civil servants to not only have a deep conviction but also strong willpower to act with integrity.
Twice former United Kingdom prime minister Benjamin Disraeli said: “Nothing can withstand the human will if it is willing to stake its very existence to the extent of its purpose.”
The writer is a former public servant and an adjunct professor at Nilai University, Negri Sembilan