Thanks to economy drive and simplifying, standardising requirements.

Jul 3, 2007
AsiaOne

Singapore’s public agencies saved a whopping $559 million or 1.68 per cent of their total cash budget in the financial year from last April until March 31 this year.

Their “save where you can and spend where you need” economy drive revolved around mainly simplifying requirements, standardising to minimise costly customisation, and synergising to share resources and avoid duplication.

Examples cited by the Finance Ministry today include the Singapore Sports Council which opened up 51 school fields for public use outside curriculum hours under the dual-use scheme.

Savings were obtained by constructing semi-portable container cabin toilets and changing rooms instead of permanent ones. This reduced the time and cost of construction, achieving real savings of $3.7 million, or 50% of the original $7.5m budget for capital expenditure for school fields.

Public feedback to the Cut Waste Panel also resulted in once-off savings of $8.7million and recurrent annual savings of $2.9 million.

The panel, chaired by the head of the civil service, comprises representatives from the private and people sectors.

Launched in September 2003, it has received 3,310 suggestions on cutting waste in the public sector.

Public agencies agreed with 85% of the cut-waste suggestions. The remaining 15% were found not suitable for implementation.

The majority, or 96% per cent, of the accepted suggestions were already implemented by the agencies. The remaining is in the process of implementation or will be implemented soon, the ministry said in a statement.

More details of the public suggestions received by the panel can be found at www.cutwaste.gov.sg

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