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A Step Towards Better Public Service Delivery

Posted on: Monday, 19 December 2005, 00:00 CST

By Ahmad Kushairi

PUBLIC services in the country have long been the subject of complaints. People who have had to queue up at Government counters complain about how long it takes before their turn comes. They gripe about bureaucracy and long for a better public delivery system.

The Government reckons that information and communications technology (ICT) is one effective way to shed the bad public impression. ICT has been a key investment area for the public sector over the past couple of years, in line with the modernisation of the sector to boost operational efficiency among its agencies.

Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, ICT initiatives will take a step further and focus on improving the public delivery system to enable citizens and businesses to get enhanced information and services through a single window to the Government.

The launch of the myGovernment portal last week is a start towards realising that goal. It is aimed at making citizens' interaction with the Government simpler through greater convenience and savings in cost and time.

Examples of such services that could be done online include changing of addresses on identity cards, renewal of passports, and payment of licences and compounds issued by local authorities.

This is certainly good news for the general public, as it will allow them the comfort of performing such transactions within the confines of their home or office when they want to. They will not need to patronise the public counters as frequently anymore and will have more time for other chores.

The challenge for the Government then is to ensure that the online public service delivery system lives up to expectations. If the services rendered through the myGovernment portal are as efficient as promised, more people will be encouraged to go online to go about their dealings with the Government. This, in turn, will help boost Internet penetration in the country, which currently is still relatively low compared to some neighbouring countries.

For the Government, the success of the online public service delivery system is crucial. It will not only help change the general public's perception of Government-rendered services, but also pave the way for more innovative ICT usage in the sector in the future.

Source: New Straits Times

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