When a simple task of putting up promotional banners along Orchard Road turned into a bureacratic challenge involving five different government agencies, civil servant Eugene Toh decided that something had to be done to cut through the red tape.

Event organisers of a Singapore Army open house had approached Mr Toh’s team - he is director of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI)’s Pro-Enterprise Division - for help in September after running into issues for their banner displays. In order to accommodate the different size and design requirements of each agency, the company had to produce five banners to seek approval.

After hearing them out, Mr Toh held a collective meeting with the agencies and resolved the matter in two weeks.

“They were not even cognizant that people were doing four or five different designs for them,” said the 36-year-old, who spoke to TODAY ahead of the Public Service Leadership Dinner at Shangri-La Hotel on Wednesday (Nov 8).

“They said: ‘This is ridiculous, we’ll standardise the banner sizes!’”

This was one of several instances where Mr Toh and his team stepped in to reduce bureaucratic red tape. The team then takes the issue up with the relevant agencies to see if regulations can be “streamlined or removed”.

Mr Toh is one of more than 800 public service officers on the Public Service Leadership Programme (PSLP), launched in 2013 to train specialist leaders to have deep knowledge and expertise in their respective sectors. Others are also trained to be able to work across all ministries and agencies as generalists.

Mr Toh, who was the Energy Market Authority’s (EMA) policy and planning department director before being seconded to MTI in June this year, said his time at the ministry has taught him the benefits of learning about and working with other agencies.

At EMA, he was involved in installing floating solar energy panels on reservoirs. The new technology, trialled at Tengeh Reservoir last year, generates clean energy in a more land-efficient manner.

“Had I remained in EMA, I would just be looking at the power system, which was my world. With this experience, I realised that there were other agencies with valid concerns,” he added.

Another example of innovation within the public service is the Autonomous Vehicle (AV) technology, which Mr Titus Seah - who is also on the PSLP - is helping to shape from the ground up.

Mr Seah, who is the lead strategist of the Ministry of Transport’s Futures Division, worked with various agencies to create a regulatory sandbox for testing AV technology in Singapore.

The 30-year-old is leading a truck platooning project, jointly run by the transport ministry and port operator PSA, involving driverless trucks which is aimed at alleviating manpower shortages. He also works with technology developers and other stakeholders to learn about the regulatory and operational considerations of AV technology.

“Trying to balance these different considerations and thinking of how to deploy the technology was an eye-opening experience,” said Mr Seah, who was previously at national water agency PUB.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by LOUISA TANG

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