Separate Contracts for Maintenance of Footpaths, Green Spaces and Drains Located within Same Area

Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for National Development whether the Government will review the current practice of PUB, LTA and NPB each issuing separate maintenance contracts for the maintenance of footpaths, green spaces and drains respectively even though they are all sited contiguously at the same location, with a view to developing a procurement model that leverages on operational synergies resultant from the aggregation of the scope of works at the same location.

Government agencies are piloting such an approach of aggregating different municipal works and contracting a single operator to perform these works. Since February 2022, the Municipal Services Office (MSO) has worked with NEA, LTA, PUB, HDB and NParks to integrate a number of related municipal services, namely, cleaning, infrastructure maintenance, greenery maintenance and other municipal service operations, under one integrated operator, in Tampines town. The intent is to enhance responsiveness of service delivery. With clear accountability and a system of outcome-based contracting, the single operator is incentivized to find solutions to pre-empt or resolve recurring problems, even if the issues cut across agency boundaries. The ground crew of the operator is also crossed-trained to respond to different issues, in order to achieve greater productivity.

The pilot has commenced for less than a year. We will continue to learn from this pilot before considering further scaling up this integrated approach to municipal service delivery.