1.2.4 Public Sector Reform in Singa

1.2.4 Public Sector Reform in Singapore
Since 1980, the concept of public administration with Market-oriented
management has convinced the Singaporean government of the necessity of public
sector reform, which led to the announcement of the guidelines for bureaucratic development called “Public Service for the 21st Century (PS21)”. This guideline
developed the bureaucracy by applying the administrative principles and concepts of
the private sector involving service provision to the public (Sarker, 2006; The
National Bureaucretic Reform Committee, 1997). The focus of the Singaporean public
administration was on productivity development in the civil service system, by
establishing the National Productivity Board in 1972 to develop productivity in the
public sector (Office of Permanent Secretary for Interior, 2005: 56)
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However, Sarker (2006: 185-187) summarized the format and methods of the
Singaporean public Sector reform, as follows: The systematic Singaporean public
Sector reform subject to the concept of New Public Management (NPM) started in
1989, by announcing the Block Vote Budget Allocation System, which authorized
ministers to manage the budgets and transfer capital and personnel between
government organizations. Also, the Singapore Government Management Accounting
System (SIGMA) was also established as the data base for the administrators in the
public sector to monitor and analyze service costs, productivity or other activities in
the public sector, as well as indicating the efficiency of budget use in each
organization.
In 1994, Budgeting for Results was also introduced requiring the public sector
to clearly define the objectives and performance indicators which had to correspond to
the budget the public sector needed and the products the public sector would gain
from activities. Moreover, the Auditor General’s Office was also established to
investigate inefficiency, wastefulness and unproductive activities within the
Singaporean public administration system.
In 1996, the Singaporean government started structural reform in the public
sector by establishing autonomous agencies (AAs) to build up autonomy and deftness
in the administration of finance, other management resources and public service
provision. Nowadays, most offices in the Singaporean public sector have become
autonomous agencies, except the Ministry of Defense and the Internal Security
Department, which are still in the public sector. Moreover, there was also
privatization, with transfer of some tasks in the public sector to private agencies,
elimination of unnecessary regulations, laws, steps or operational processes and
application of different administrative techniques.
Besides, the Singaporean public Sector reform according to NPM has also
included human resource management in the public sector, by transferring the Civil
Service Commission’s authority of recruitment and consideration of promotion to
organizations at the ministerial level. This has allowed the public sector to recruit
qualified personnel from the private sector to work in the public sector.
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1.3 Conclusion
The examples of public sector reforms above reveal a variety of formats and
methods in public sector reforms, which were summarized by Pollitt and Bouckaert
(2000 quoted Best Practices: Public Administration Reform, 2013) into four common
principles:
1) To tighten up the existing controls by cutting the budget, limiting
the number of officials in the public sector or reducing the amount of waste.
2) To modernize the government system by applying the administration
of the private sector or using organizational design which is flexible and suitable for
change.
3) To introduce the concept of the market mechanism in order to
stimulate competition between the public and the private sectors or within the public
sector.
4) To streamline the public sector’s roles by increasing the private
sector’s role through contracting out.