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better way to gather feedback online |
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Government
agencies now have another effective means of gathering
feedback
on policies and major issues.
The one-stop Government Consultation Portal was
launched in April 2003 by the Ministry of Community
Development and Sports’ Feedback Unit.
Varied feedback channels
Through the e-Consultation Paper channel, the public can gain easy access to
policy papers posted online by government agencies and give their feedback to
the consulting agencies directly. The current topics include the effectiveness
of the Feedback Unit, promoting philanthropy through the National Volunteer Centre,
and the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Draft Master Plan 2003.
The interactive exchange is reinforced when the agencies acknowledge such contributions
and close the feedback loop by posting a summary of the feedback received and
responding to the public through this channel.
Other features of the portal include the Discussion Forum and Replies to Feedback.
The forum allows members of the public to share their views on varied topics
such as education, health and transport by posting messages online.
The Replies to Feedback feature highlights agencies’ response to feedback.
This way, members of the public will gain a better understanding of the rationale
behind government policies.
By the fourth quarter of the year, another avenue will be made available for
government agencies to reach out to the public. Through the portal’s e-Poll
feature, agencies will be able to post structured poll questionnaires to solicit
public feedback as well as share the results online.
Moving up the e-governance maturity scale
“The aim of bringing more consultation services online is to make it convenient
for people to give their views as well as for the Government to reach out to
the e-community for feedback,” says Mr Tan Yew Soon, Director of the Feedback
Unit.
Online public consultation is not new as agencies such as the Monetary Authority
of Singapore and the Infocomm Development Authority had already been putting
up discussion papers online. However, there was no common platform for government
agencies to seek public opinions. Hence the Feedback Unit decided to develop
a portal to serve as a central repository of government policies for public consultation.
Under the framework of developing e-governance capability in the public sector,
government agencies have to move from the “Describe” and “Explain” stages
of merely informing and clarifying policies to the “Consult” and “Connect” stages
of engaging the public in the decision-making process. With the Consultation
Portal, government agencies will be able to fully achieve the “Consult” level
of e-governance capability.
Easy and convenient tool for agencies
All ministries and statutory boards are strongly encouraged to post their consultation
papers directly on the portal itself or through a link from the portal to their
own website.
The portal provides a user-friendly content management template that makes for
quick and easy uploading of papers and questionnaires. Besides, it saves agencies
both cost and effort in not having to develop and maintain their own consultation
website.
Moreover, the portal allows agencies to cast their consultation net further to
include Singaporeans anywhere in the world. If agencies require feedback from
specific groups, they can also tap on the 5,000 members of the People’s
Forum, a database of feedback contributors maintained by the Feedback Unit. |
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Next: Transforming
the e-services landscape
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| Related
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Government
agencies interested to tap on the Feedback
Unit’s Consultation Portal can
contact Edmund Phang (Tel: 6355 8127)
or Yeo Wee Seng (6354 8021)
or send an email to feedback_unit@mcds.
gov.sg.
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