Cushioning the Impact

Most people pretty much has accepted that the world economy will not be getting any better, and that the cost of necessities (and no, an HTC Touch Diamond does not count as a necessity!) is going to continue its rise.

The concern is that there is no comprehensive social net in Malaysia, to help with the most needy families with their basic needs, especially in the light of potential loss of employment due to the slowing economy. Big, urban families are the ones most at risk.

Crime rates, petty or otherwise will probably also rise if people are desperate enough. Longer term, the effects of bad nutrition (a family was featured in one of the news dailies eating rice and rassam only! Not that I have anything against rassam, but ...) on children, especially, would impact the effectiveness of our workforce 10-15 years down the line.

So this is definitely something that we need to collectively figure out how to solve. How to get help to those that need it the most, while minimizing leakages and ensuring that fraud is kept to a minimum, so that we get the best "bang for the buck".

Perhaps it is time to explore some sort of targeted aid - where a set amount (depending on a formula based on number of people in a household, household income, household expenditures etc) is distributed to people who apply for it. Eligibility is determined via interviews and the aid "expires" after a period of time.

The aid can be distributed via MyKad (biometric features help in combating fraud) to be withdrawn via ATM, or be done via old-fashioned "food coupons" that can only be used for food items (not soft drinks or gula gula!)

Trees vs Bushes

I wonder why the folks in charge of the decorative plants at the sides of the roads choose to plant and re-plant small, bushy plants rather than big tall angsana trees. Higher maintenance? They sure would be a nice addition to our local scenery, providing shade and helping negate some of the global warming effect.

And what's with the non-native palm trees everywhere, anyway?

Accountability

Of course-lah all the productivity improvements and modernizations have been attempted before with varying degrees of success. I believe that it's our model of accountability in the public sector that needs a critical look, to help maximize the probability of success of such improvement initiatives.

In the end, who is held accountable for the success of a systems implementation or productivity improvement of an agency? How is this person held accountable? Is he going to be rewarded for performance gains? Who owns the outcomes?

I would suggest that Government agencies take the step of making available to the public their top-line KPIs (again, make sure it makes sense-lah, really be focused on outcomes that either affect the citizens or the country directly) ala  the Khazanah-led GLC KPIs.

The various Ministers would be held accountable to meet these KPIs, and to have regular updates to the citizens on their progress. Eventually with the help of technology the updates would be continuously available for all citizen-activists to look at and either cheer or jeer at the facts.

The definition of these KPIs would also help to clarify overlaps and areas of responsibilities between government agencies, helping drive efficiency gains (see previous post).

The good leaders will have an opportunity to make their accomplishments well known and this will lead the public to make better informed decisions as to who they want to hold high office.

This will also help justify any salary increases or even bonuses that may come their way - after all, Ministers do play an important role in Government, and we do want to tempt enough high-caliber CEO types from the private sector to provide leadership and energy in the public sector. Well, at least I think so.

Raising Living Standards

Looks like we're all headed for harder times ahead. Cost of living is going up, and the global economy looks like it's putting its brakes on.

In our country we've been relatively insulated from the ups and downs of the global market. I fear those days are coming to an end.

The common refrain we hear from the man-on-the-street is "harga minyak naik, barang makan naik, tapi gaji tak naik!" - which is true, since the inflation spiral will simply get worse if salaries are raised to keep up with cost of living.

I'd like to suggest though that salaries are raised via increase in productivity. It can be kick-started by the biggest employer in the country - the Government. Take a hard look at the existing productivity of its employees, sector by sector, agency by agency.

Focus on the high-value processes and functions and figure out what are the outcomes that can be measured (which can be terribly hard to do, but not impossible) and set targets for improvement (e.g. how long does it take to approve a building plan, end-to-end?) on an annual or even half-yearly basis. Monitor constantly to avoid "gaming" the numbers.

These high-value processes should be examined critically to reduce mistakes, "idle-time" when it's sitting, waiting for someone to continue the processing, and most importantly, be automated by technology wherever possible. By automating processes, mistakes are reduced and leaves the staff available to do higher-value activities, improving morale and enabling them to deliver more value and hence earn that higher salary.

Because the Government is also involved in a lot of activities in the private sector (through regulatory or facilitative activities) these efficiency gains would inevitably spill over to the private sector and overall economy, enabling us to do more with less, generating more value with the same or even less amount of effort. Then only gaji can naik, lah!