DE CEMBER 1, 2 02 0 PAGE 9NEW SUNDAY TIMES

SRS INDEX KEEPS AGENCIES IN TOP FORM

THE performance of public sectoragencies is a critical element ininternational rating reports on a

country ’s competitiveness.Among the reports produced by in-

ternational bodies that considered thisaspect are the World CompetitivenessYearb o ok by the Institute for Manage-ment Development, the Global Com-petitiveness Report by the World Eco-nomic Forum, and the annual D oingBusiness Report by the World Bank.

The factors considered when mea-suring the agencies’ performance in-clude bureaucracy, transparency,friendliness of service delivered andefficiency. These reports could influ-ence the decision of the internationalbusiness community in selecting theirdestination for investments or tradeac tivities.

At the national level, under thetagline of “People first, performancenow ”, the Government TransformationProgramme and Economic Transfor-mation Programme are the main pillarsof a framework to spearhead the na-t i o n’s vision to achieve high-incomestatus by 2020.

The 11th Malaysia Plan is the na-t i o n’s strategic development directionfrom next year until 2020. It is one ofthe main instruments to ensure thesuccess of the transformation mission.

On top of this, an ongoing effort inempowering the public sector will takeplace via improvements in efficiency,transparency and service delivery, inline with the people’s needs and gov-e r n m e nt ’s aspiration.

To adapt to the changes in the po-litical, economic and social landscapelocally and internationally, the publicsector has to come out of its comfortzone by making transformation andinnovation its main agenda in imple-menting continuous improvements inservice delivery.

To overcome the challenge, theMalaysian Administrative Modernisa-tion and Management Planning Unit(Mampu) is one step ahead by intro-ducing a new model to rate the per-formance of the public sector via a StarRating Index, or SRS Index, to replacethe existing Star Rating System.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s De-partment Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaunsaid in order to ensure an excellentpublic service delivery, an evaluation ofthe sector’s performance needs to bestrengthened by injecting new ele-ments that were relevant to currenttrends and requirements.

Joseph said the new index would bean integrated mechanism to evaluate

the public agencies’ performance, es-pecially on transformation and inno-vation, which were the main focuses ofthe government.

He said the digital revolution andexpansion of social media had created aknowledgeable community that hadhigh expectations on the public sector.

“Because of this, the public sector hasto ensure that it will always be at itsbest to improve the nation’s compet-i t i ve n e s s,” he said.

“The improvement of gove r n m e ntservices is crucial as the globalisationprocess has left an impact on the mod-ernisation of economies, politics, socialand administration systems, and gov-ernment delivery, especially agenciesthat interact with the public.”

He said based on the concept that a

task would get done if it was measured;this evaluation programme would be aplatform for public agencies to con-tinuously reinforce its managementand service delivery.

He said a healthy competition toimprove the agencies’ rating wouldboost the spirit and morale of theemployees to improve their services,thus benefiting the public.

Mampu director-general Datuk SeriZainal Rahim Seman said the Star Rat-ing System was established in 2008.

Currently, there are six categories ofagencies assessed, including m i n i s t r i e s,central agencies and key departments(under head of services), state secre-tariats, frontline agencies, Sabah andSarawak state federal secretariats andstrategic KPI Tier-1 agencies.

He said 62 agencies were involved,excluding the local authorities and theland offices. The evaluation of localauthorities was done by the Ministry ofUrban Wellbeing, Housing and LocalGovernment, while the land offices wascarried out by the Department of Di-rector-General of Lands and Mines.

He said, after undergoing a series ofevaluations based on the previous sys-tem, the performance of all agencieshad shown an improvement in terms ofattaining the 5-Star rating and also themarks obtained.

Besides that, he said, the Star RatingSystem had succeeded in id e nt i f y i n gthe best practices that could be repli-cated among agencies in the publicsec tor.

However, he said, previous achieve-ments by the public agencies were in-cremental in nature, and merely com-plied with government circulars.

Nevertheless, this concept was in-strumental in ensuring the standard -isation and streamlining of good man-agement practices among a ge n c i e s.

“Therefore, the new index was de-veloped to ensure a sustainable cultureof excellence in their performance,which also serves as a quality assuranceon service delivery.

“The agencies that obtain the 5-Starrating are agencies that have succeededin implementing the culture of excel-lence across all organisations.”

Anticipating the emerging aspira-tions of the stakeholders and the everincreasing demands of the customersfor higher levels of service delivery, SRShas undergone a major revamp lastye a r. Faced with more formidable andchallenging tasks of driving the agendaof transforming the public service,

Mampu has come up with a new modelcalled the SRS Index, which has fourmain areas — compliance, quality,transformation and innovation (CQTI)— with the emphasis on three criteria:outcome-based, customer-centric andstakeholder ’s aspiration.

Moreover, Zainal said Mampu wo u l densure that the good performance ofthe agencies was consistent through-out the year. He said this could beachieved by conducting “mystery shop-ping ” and introducing online surveysthrough the system called myPelang-gan to gauge customer satisfaction.

Zainal said merit and demerit factorswould also be taken into account incalculating the overall score of the in-dex before the ratings were finalised.

“This will ensure that only deservingagencies will get the 5-Star rating.Those that aim to secure good ratingmust also have positive image in theeyes of the public and stakeholders.”

Zainal said all aspects of the SRSI n d ex were important to drive the per-formance of the agencies to maintaintop form, especially in the last lap ofachieving Vision 2020.

Zainal said it was not sufficient toretain the momentum but have to dou-ble up efforts to make an overall im-provement .

“At the end of the day, the rating isnot the sole target for the public agen-cies, but rather, inculcating and main-taining the culture of excellence for thebenefit of the public is the ultimateobjec tive.”

Lastly, he urged the agencies thathad obtained the 5-Star rating not tobe complacent but to take the chal-lenge to continuously improve theirper formance.

NEW SYSTEM:Besides motivatingpublic agencies tobe the best, govtwants them tomaintain theirexcellent status

KUALA LUMPUR

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun says to ensure an excellent public service delivery, an evaluation of thesector’s performance needs to be strengthened by injecting new elements.

A healthy competition to improve the rating of public agencies willboost the spirit and morale of employees to improve their services.