Isn’t this the command you use to reboot a computer? Not quite. At first glance, the three words look uncannily similar to the computer command “Control, Alternate, Delete.” But “Continue, Alter, Delete?” is the tagline of the Policy Reboot system, an internal policy review system
of the Economic Development Board (EDB).

The system was borne out of the “Review of Public Sector Rules” 2002 finance circular which states that all rules affecting the public must be reviewed over a three-year period, and thereafter on a five-year cycle.

Developing a more efficient system
Said Mr Chong Chan Vee, the man behind Policy Reboot: “We could have accomplished the mammoth task (of reviewing policies) manually, but a manual process would be difficult to sustain in the long term.”

Hence, he and his teammate, Ms Linda Tan, came up with this system that allows policy owners to enter, update and edit policies.

The system requires a one-time effort on the part of the policy owners to enter the policies, after which the system will track the review schedule automatically. Policy owners with policies due for review will be prompted by the system a month before the set review date.

When public officers review policy papers, they need to decide whether the policies should be continued, altered or deleted, hence the tagline.

Mr Chong, Assistant Head of Logistics & Transport, took one week to develop the idea. He and Ms Tan, a project leader of the Chief Information Officer’s Office, then developed the system in three months.

By September 2002, barely four months after the finance circular was sent out, the system was implemented in EDB. To date — two years after its roll-out — all the major policies are in the system.

Vital support and leadership
“EDB management’s support and leadership was pivotal to this organisational rules review project,” said Mr Chong.

When the team presented the project, the management was highly supportive of the system. Not only did it share the rationale of rules review and stories of outdated rules, it asked for a bimonthly update to ensure that the system included the key policies.

“With our management’s sponsorship and clear articulation of the intent and the timeline, our role in rolling out the system was made easier. What we needed to do was to brief and explain, and at the same time provide the support to our colleagues when they needed it,” explained
Ms Tan.

A model of success
The Policy Reboot system does not end at getting public officers to review their policies periodically.

The system, accessible through the intranet, consists of a front-end database where all EDB officers can easily read EDB policies.

Ms Melissa Foo, a manager from the Risk Management Services unit, describes the system as “a central storage for all EDB policies — a one stop for officers to refer to”.

For now, Policy Reboot seems to be a successful model. Some ministries have approached EDB to find out more about it. However, while the system is in place, the true test ultimately lies in how officers use the system.