Tuesday October 6, 2009
Koh tells Govt to respond quickly to public complaints
By DHARMENDER SINGH
PUTRAJAYA: Firm, fair, friendly and fast — this should be the approach used by civil servants when providing services to the public, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon said.
Dr Koh said people’s awareness of their rights had increased, partly due to the wide usage of facilities like the Internet and the short messaging service (SMS). This had raised the public’s expectations of the speed and efficiency of ministries and government agencies.
He said 40% of the 11,000 complaints received by the Public Complaints Bureau, ministries and government agencies was through e-mail and SMS.
Civil servants, he said, had to respond to the public quickly to keep pace with the faster modes being used by the public but this should not be done at the expense of existing laws, rules and regulations.
“The systems we have now are good but I believe that it is not beyond the capabilities of our civil servants to raise the bar further on the efficiency of services provided.
“It is just a matter of looking for better and more effective solutions like how the Immigration Depart-ment managed to find a way to reduce the processing time for passports to just three hours from three weeks,” he told a press conference after launching the Public Complaints Management Seminar here yesterday.
On complaints from the public, Dr Koh said the highest number of complaints concerned delays in processing licenses, permits and building plans by local authorities followed by services provided by the police and the Immigration Department.
He said checks by the Public Complaints Bureau under the Prime Minister’s Department however revealed that some of the delays were due to the failure of the people concerned to meet all the requirements when making their applications or reports.
“But this does not mean that we are trying to push the blame to the public, instead I feel that the agencies concerned should look into the possible weaknesses in the information they provide and improve on it,” he said.
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