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| The
Economy Drive: A positive report card |
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Since the official launch
of the Economy Drive (ED) in July last year, public
agencies have actively participated in the ED movement
in their organisations. Public officers at all levels
have suggested and implemented a wide range of ED
initiatives.
As a result, the public sector achieved ED savings
of an estimated $475 million in FY 03. These savings
can then be redeployed by our public agencies to
meet new or more pressing priorities.
Examples of ED efforts at various levels of the
public sector are
as follows.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) believes that school
buildings should be functional and costefficient,
while providing students with a conducive environment
for learning and interaction. MOE has in place a
system of norms and standards that it uses to guide
school building projects. These norms and standards
are reviewed regularly to ensure that they are up
to date, and the norms are set at the lower end
compared to relevant sectoral benchmarks.
A recent review of the space requirements and design
details was conducted, and the budget to develop
each new school has been reduced by 10%. A total
of $30 million in savings in development expenditure
are expected to be reaped in FY 03. The review will
not compromise the goal of providing a conducive
physical environment
for students.
Citing another example, Mr Loke Mun Sing from the
School Development Office said, “The omission
of the Integrated Communication Management System
(ICMS) for classrooms is estimated to save $50,000
per school. The ICMS links the intercom, public
address (PA) and other mechanical and electrical
(M&E) monitoring systems to the General Office
via a single PC dataface. Schools have given feedback
that the intercom system is seldom used, and if
necessary, teachers can be contacted via their handphones.
Omitting the ICMS will not compromise the PA and
M&E monitoring systems as they can still function
as standalone systems.
The PS21 Office publishes 11 issues of Challenge
every year.
Previously, 25,600 copies of Challenge
were distributed throughout the Public Service to
reach out to more than 120,000 public officers.
Recently, Challenge Online was launched
in the Internet. With the extensive reach of the
online version, there is no need to print that many
hard copies for distribution. The number of printed
copies has been reduced by more than 70% to 7,000
copies, resulting in savings of $35,000 for PMO
in FY 03.
Previously, judicial officers and court administrators
relied on many hard copy legal books and publications
for adjudication, research and for administrative
purposes. To leverage on the benefits of technology,
judges and officers now extensively conduct legal
research online. The Subordinate Courts saved $104,000
in FY 03 from reductions in the number of hard copy
books and publications purchased.
In the past, print runs of hard copies of some parliamentary
documents were made to serve as replacement/ repeat/reference
copies and to cater to external agencies. Typesetting
was also outsourced. With greater computerisation,
print-ready soft copies of parliamentary documents
are now made in-house, eliminating the need for
commercial typesetting. Print runs have also been
reduced by more than 30% with the availability of
Internet copies and with the rationalisation of
reference copies. The Parliament saved $30,000 in
FY 03.
GovMall is the one-stop website for the sale of
government products such as reports and publications.
Previously, it was managed and operated by Infocomm
Development Authority on behalf of the Government.
To achieve cost savings and greater operational
efficiency, GovMall was outsourced to SingTel Yellow
Pages (SYP) in April 2003. SYP already had an established
online mall set-up that met GovMall’s requirements.
By outsourcing GovMall, a total of $30,000 in savings
was achieved by MOF in FY 03.
The Media Development Authority (MDA) saved $1.36
million in FY 03 by encouraging production companies
to co-invest in projects.
Prior to the co-invest programme, funding for the
production of TV programmes was given on a grant
or commission basis. Thus if MDA gave a grant of
$X for a project, the production industry would
benefit from only $X worth of production.
Under the co-investment programme, for every $1
that the MDA puts in, an additional $1 to $2 of
capital will be added to the project by other investors.
This increases the total value of production which
MDA can support for a given amount of funds. Furthermore,
as coinvestors, production companies become content
owners and not just content makers. Through such
an approach, production companies are now able to
enjoy proportionate ownership of the rights and
profits of the content they create. They would want
to find ways to further exploit the content, i.e.
through merchandising, the making of sequels, marketing
these programmes overseas, etc. By partnering with
the industry, MDA is thus able to support and invest
in more projects and further develop the film and
media industry. An example of a programme produced
under this scheme is the “Rouge” project
co-produced by MDA, MTV, and a local production
company called Mega Media.
And how did the idea for the co-investment programme
come about?
Mr Seto Lok Yin, Director (Industrial Development),
MDA, explained: “First, it arose from our
strategic objective of encouraging local companies
to develop film and TV programmes that can travel
beyond the Singapore market.
“Second, we wanted to ‘stretch’
our funds to draw private investments into projects.
In the longer term, the media industry can be selfsustaining
if a significant amount of private capital is attracted
to the industry.
“Third, we wanted to ensure Singapore production
companies retain ownership of the intellectual properties
of their content. We can do this by encouraging
these companies to co-invest in their own content.” |
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By
Cut Waste Panel Secretariat
Next: MinLaw’s
effort to save money |
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| Related
Articles |
| MinLaw’s
effort to save money |
The
Economy Drive:
A positive report card |
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“The
Economy Drive is an ongoing journey.
The spirit and concepts of the Economy
Drive can be applied at all times.”
Mr Peter Ong, Chairman
of
Economy Drive Committee,
in his opening address at the
2003 ED Forum |
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There are many
more examples of how public officers from
different agencies have contributed towards
ED. So watch
this space in the months ahead! |
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The sterling results
in
FY 03 are now behind us but they remain as
proof of what can be achieved. We must all
work harder in the new FY to live up to the
ED motto: Spend what you need; save where
you can. |
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