Streamlining Government Processes to Increase Productivity

The Senior Minister of State for Finance (Mrs Josephine Teo)(for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance): Mdm Speaker, the Government recognises that successful implementation of major initiatives will typically require aligning multiple stakeholder agencies.

For example, to better align productivity efforts in the construction sector, the Building Innovation Panel led by MND and BCA brings together nine regulatory agencies, including NEA, SCDF and LTA, to facilitate multi-agency evaluation and approval of innovative products or processes that improve construction productivity. The Panel has made it easier for several new technologies to be accepted for use in building projects in Singapore, such as Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction and Cross Laminated Timber. The use of new technologies and materials support the broader measures taken upstream, namely the higher requirements for development projects' buildability and constructability scores which are themselves the result of multi-agency deliberations. That is a sectoral example.

More broadly, we have also established tripartite and inter-agency platforms to coordinate and drive national efforts across different domains. This approach has been adopted for the long-term effort to restructure our economy towards higher skills and productivity, through the tripartite National Productivity Council (NPC). The NPC is supplemented by sub-committees with a sectoral focus.

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The multi-agency e-Gov Council is another case. It drives and coordinates the improvement of electronic services to businesses and citizens. A recent example is the processing of applications by property developers to pay an additional charge to enhance land value. By streamlining workflows and using a common IT platform, URA and SLA are able to process applications concurrently, reducing approval time.

The Pro-Enterprise Panel (PEP) is another mechanism to address rules and regulations that hamper productivity. Businesses that face challenges navigating regulatory requirements may approach the PEP, which comprises senior public officers and business leaders. Since 2000, the PEP has reviewed more than 1,800 suggestions from businesses on rules and procedures and accepted more than half of them. Besides the PEP, there is a Smart Regulation Committee, which was set up to promote good regulatory design and practices across the Government and to benchmark our regulations against international standards.

Madam, our systems and processes will continue to evolve. But we are committed to strengthening the coordination of policies and processes within the Government and with our partners and welcome suggestions on how we can do this better.

Madam, I thank the Senior Minister of State for her advice. I would like to touch on the area of procurement of Government projects where companies submit tender applications to each respective agency which requires that these companies fill in their respective information into a unique template, whereas the information required from these firms is often common. Having to produce and print out many copies of this paperwork is largely redundant.

In our quest towards a Smart City where information technology can be better harnessed, can the Senior Minister of State consider having a central depository that catalogues the information on companies, such as their registration status, as well as personnel track records, which could be updated on a regular basis? This would vastly improve the efficiency of the procurement process. Furthermore, incorporating technology, this system could be further automated to alleviate the burden on both ends, when it comes to extracting and processing critical information.

The second bit, because towards the current state of —

All right. Currently, the cost estimate for each individual Government project is done based on cost data obtained from previous projects which often do not have the environmentally sustainable features that the current policies advocate.

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Singapore's commitment to sustainability is to be proud of and we should revise current cost policies to reflect this commitment. Can the Senior Minister of State help to advance this approach?

Mdm Speaker, on the Member's first question, which relates to repetitive data requests, I thank her for her suggestion and we would be very keen to follow up with the Member and look at how we can, indeed, implement it. We agree that, as far as possible, if we can reduce the amount of effort required for data submissions by potential bidders, that is something that would be helpful. So, we will follow up with the Member separately.

On the Member's second question, I am not sure I understand it completely. So, maybe if I could ask her for a clarification, she mentioned cost estimates currently do not take into account environmental sustainability. I am not sure what the Member is asking me to help push.

Usually, for Government projects, projection of cost is based on work done before. In view of the quest towards sustainable green buildings, there are these sustainable features that we put into buildings and those are usually not updated in the data. As such, many a time, the cost does not allow you to do all the features that you want to fit in for Green Mark compliance or to give renewable energy projections. So, can the Senior Minister of State help in this area because it just is not commensurate?

Madam, I think it is probably best that we get the Building Construction Authority to follow up with the Member specifically to see how this element can be incorporated.