RED TAPE IS THE BANE OF EVERYONE'S EXISTENCE. No one likes filling in forms in triplicate, standing in line, and then being told that the forms have not been filled out properly, that they don't have the right documents or worse still, that they've been waiting in the wrong queue. Thankfully, most of the time, red tape is manageable in Singapore. However, there is always room for improvement and some agencies in Singapore have taken the lead in doing so.

One of those agencies is the Land Transport Authority (LTA), which has simplified procedures for getting permission to dig up a road or to carry out any other works that affect the public street or areas.

Previously, getting approval to do roadworks was a long and tedious process. It would require submitting applications to the LTA; the National Parks Board, if it involved a grass verge; and the Public Utilities Board (PUB), if a drain was affected. It might even involve the Housing and Development Board and the JTC, depending on the location.

So whenever a company like SingTel, StarHub or the even the PUB needed to dig up a road to lay cables or pipes, they had to get the form from the relevant agencies, fill up the forms and manually submit these forms to each agency separately. Approvals could take up to three months. However, the situation has improved ever since LTA set up a web-based portal called LTA.prompt (https://prompt.lta.gov.sg) in 2006. Using a web browser, companies only need to fill in one form online. And that form will be sent to all the relevant approving agencies. All the land-managing agencies have committed to a 14-day response time frame.

According to Mr Loh Kai Yeong, Senior Technical Officer at PUB, the new system is much better. Mr Loh's department is involved in laying water pipes, which means that they have to dig up the road a lot. "Before, when we were using paper, it was very tedious. You had to file all the papers in person and you had to go to the different agencies individually," he said. "Now it is very straightforward. Everything can be done in the office."

Mr Chuai Chip Tiong, Deputy Director of Road Infrastructure Management, LTA, said LTA.prompt was set up to simplify the process of getting approvals from multiple agencies. In designing the system, LTA worked with the different agencies involved to develop a portal that would capture all the information required by the various agencies. In the design phase, LTA also invited users to give feedback on their needs and how the new system could make their lives easier.

As such, the system isn't just used for seeking approvals. Applicants can find out the status of their applications, look up contractors' track records and find out if anyone else is carrying out works in nearby areas. "Such knowledge enables applicants working near each other to coordinate amongst themselves to share and optimise their resources and to minimise abortive works," said Mr Chuai.

The portal enables applicants to track their applications and even send out reminders to them on outstanding tasks. Users can also request for time extensions through the portal if they cannot complete their work by the previously approved completion date. They can also report the commencement and completion of their works online. Previously, all this had be done via manual submissions.

LTA.prompt now gets about 300 logins each day and almost all transactions are now handled through the portal.

Another agency which has made tremendous strides in cutting red tape is the Building and Construction Authority (BCA). The BCA runs a portal called CORENET (Construction and Real Estate Network) which provides a slew of integrated services to the building and construction industry. One of the key services under CORENET is the e-Submission System which is a one-stop point for round-the-clock submission of building-related applications to the dozen or so government agencies for parallel processing and approval. According to Mr Wong Wai Ching, Director of the Building Plan and Management Division of BCA, "CORENET aims to reengineer and streamline the fragmented work processes in the construction industry so as to achieve quantum improvements in turnaround time, quality and productivity through the use of infocomm technology."

Using CORENET, which was launched in 2001, an architect can submit a building plan to the BCA; a plumber can submit a notification of water service work to the PUB; and a registered surveyor can submit a Strata Certified Plan to the Singapore Land Authority. CORENET handles planning approvals, building plan approvals, building maintenance and certification from 16 different regulatory authorities. In the first quarter of this year alone, CORENET handled about 28,600 submissions.

According to Ms Nursiah Mohd Noor, a senior technical staff of DSA Architect, CORENET has saved the company a lot of time. Previously, the company had to send people all over the island to queue up in order to submit forms. Now, submitting a form is just a click away. In addition, there are no worries about using outdated forms because the most recent forms are always on the portal. "CORENET is a brilliant all-in-one submission stop for professionals like us," she said.

Another similar system is the Police Licensing Computerised System (PLUS). Set up in October 2003, PLUS was designed to make it easy for the public to apply for licences. By doing it online, members of the public do not have to go to the Police Licensing Division to submit the paperwork in person.

PLUS allows people to apply for a licence to provide public entertainment, to sell liquor, to provide massage services, to import arms and explosives, to do house-to-house collections and to get private investigation and security agency licences online. Users can also use the system to apply for duplicate licences, notify the police about changes in their company profiles, or even withdraw their applications, said DSP Marc E, Assistant Director of the Licensing Division.

The Police Licensing Division handles an average of about 200 licence applications via PLUS every day.

While moving to an online portal and simplifying the submission process is obviously an improvement over the old system, this does not mean that the change will be immediately embraced by everyone.

Persuading people to move from the old system to a new system requires effort. In the case of LTA.prompt, the LTA conducted a seminar to introduce people to the system and also conducted training for the key users of the system.

The BCA, on the other hand, has many more users so what it did was to set up a friendly and efficient helpdesk to help companies and individuals that are struggling with the new system. From the feedback, praises were given to BCA's friendly helpdesk staff.

What the examples of LTA.prompt, CORENET and PLUS show is that with effort and determination, it is possible to create a system that facilitates paperwork, even when complex, multi-agency approval processes are involved. By talking to end-users during the design process of the project, agencies can develop services that meet their needs.