| A host
of ideas to save costs at MOF |
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Since the official
launch of the Economy Drive (ED) in May last year,
the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has implemented a
wide range of ED initiatives. In FY 03, MOF’s
ED savings of $40.2 million (6% of total budget)
exceeded its original target of $13.4 million (2%
of total budget). In fact, the Economy Drive Committee
(EDC) ranked MOF first in terms of achieved ED savings
as a percentage of total cash budget among all the
ministries in FY 03.
MOF recognises that ED is part and parcel of the
Public Service 21 (PS21) change programme, and changing
the attitudes and practices of its staff towards
the use of public funds involves a multi-pronged
approach.
Net Economic Value (NEV), together with initiatives
such as Six Sigma, Best Sourcing, Resource Budgeting
and Accounting, are all part of ED.
To promote ED across all levels of staff in the
organisation, MOF has adopted a three-pronged approach:
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The top management
staff monitor the ED results through quarterly
internal EDC meetings. There are also regular
updates from the MOF internal EDC secretariat
on the progress of ED and sharing of initiatives
across MOF agencies. |
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The middle management
staff in each agency help to implement the
initiative by cascading the information to
lower-level staff and garnering organisation-wide
support. |
| • |
Efforts have also been
made to incorporate ED in day-to-day functions
and operations. To show how each staff can
play a part in ED, MOF developed in-house
emails, posters and snippets. Staff were encouraged
to make use of existing PS21, WITS and SSS
platforms to provide ideas on how to save
costs. |
The following are some examples of ED efforts in
MOF.
Reviewing
IT system requirements and availability levels
To meet the Public Service infrastructure (PSi)
system requirement of 99.999% for production, development,
test and quality assurance (QA) environment, a helpdesk
service used to be provided 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week.
A strategic review was undertaken to reduce the
system availability requirements from 99.999% to
99.95% for production and 99.999% to 99.9% for development,
test and QA environment. The helpdesk operating
hours were correspondingly reduced to office hours.
By reconfiguring the PSi system, MOF enjoys annual
savings of $2.9 million while still achieving the
intended level of system efficiency.
Reviewing use of existing
resources
To achieve cost savings and greater operational
efficiency, MOF reviewed its use of existing resources.
Officers were encouraged to print less, print on
both sides, print two pages in a sheet, use refillable
stationery, etc. And by doing away with the need
to send the Notice of Assessment by registered mail,
IRAS in particular, managed to reduce postage expenditure
by about $300,000 per annum.
Energy-saving measures
MOF HQ has also adopted cost-saving measures such
as switching off 30% of the lights during lunchtime,
ensuring that the office temperature is maintained
at 23°C, and reducing the rate of flow of the
water tap from 6 litres per minute to 2 litres per
minute.
A review over the past 12 months showed that MOF’s
average monthly electrical usage was 1,935 kilowatts.
However, our monthly contracted electricity supply
was 2,500 kilowatts. We have hence reduced our monthly
contracted electricity supply from 2,500 kilowatts
to 2,000 kilowatts and achieved savings of about
$42,000 per annum.
Moreover, energy-saving measures introduced by various
departments and statutory boards have enabled MOF
to enjoy savings totalling $280,000 per annum. |
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