Sarawak is aiming to deliver world-class civil service to the people by 2020 in line with the benchmark of the world standard, said Deputy State Secretary (Performance and Service Delivery Transformation) Datuk Dr Sabariah Putit.
“We have two more years to transform our civil service into world-class standard,” she said when launching the Sarawak State Civil Human Resource Summit last December.
While I feel that this may sound a little over ambitious, I cannot help but applaud her and the government for taking the bold attempt towards achieving service excellence in our state’s civil service – world-class standard, to be precise.
For the benefit of the doubters, our civil service, had, in the past eight years, undergone a lot of changes to transform its service delivery at all levels.
She also disclosed that Sarawak was the first in Malaysia to have won the International Innovation Award (IIA) of the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (Capam) 2017.
Sarawak also won the DNA Innovation Category along with India during the Capam 2017.
Congratulations, but then, let’s pause for a moment and try to take stock of the current situation.
According to definition, ‘civil service’ is ‘the permanent professional branches of a state’s administration, excluding military and judicial branches and elected politicians.’
‘Service’ in simple language is defined as ‘the action of helping or doing work for someone’, or in a broader sense, a system supplying a public need such as transport, communications, or utilities like electricity and water.
Excellent, or world class service means proactively and consistently exceeding expectations of both internal (government) and external customers (the public).
Based on these parameters, where does our civil service stand at this point of time?
Honestly…is it satisfactory, good or excellent?
My answer is that it can be further improved.
Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it.
It’s what the client, customer or the public gets out of it – that’s the yardstick for measuring the civil service – from the perspectives of both the internal and external customers.
A quick check on its portal revealed the following ‘common core values’, namely:
* Integrity
* Kind and Caring
* Professionalism
* Sense of Urgency and Ownership
* Team Spirit
* Result Oriented
All in alignment with its vision ‘to be a world class civil service’ and mission ‘to deliver excellent service through high-powered performance.’
Ironically, the most important word ‘service’ was not mentioned in any of its core values – noting the motto of our state civil service, as ‘An Honour To Serve’.
Being, or aspiring to be world-class isn’t just about slogans and declarations.
It’s about having, collectively, a strong service mindset, culture and shared beliefs, from the top levels right down to the lowest rank and file in the civil service delivery chain.
These values take years, if not decades, to be embedded as a philosophy in the organisation.
While the issue of the glaring lopsidedness in the composition of the civil service has been highlighted and yet to be resolved, emphasis should also be placed on meritocracy, based on a ‘world-class’ recruitment, reward and remuneration system.
Excellence should be the main driving force behind all decision-makings.
The infrastructure may be world-class but it’s the human element which determines its efficient and effective usage and application.
If these are still found wanting, the aim to achieve world-class service within the next two years may indeed be a tall order and that’s not being pessimistic, but realistically speaking.
If we were to use our local government services as a simple yardstick to measure service, I dare say there are still gaps which can be further improved – a quantum leap from a reactive approach to a more proactive one – a transformation, that is.
World-class service is about exceeding public expectations, consistently and effectively across the board.
All said, it’s still good to shoot for the stars but there’s no shame in landing on the moon.
