Singapore citizens rate govt services highly
Survey also shows 77% want greater say in how to improve country
By LEE U-WEN
(SINGAPORE) Just over half of Singaporeans surveyed in a recent poll described their country as a ‘good’ place to live and work, while a further 23 per cent rated the Republic ‘world- class’.
In total, 86 per cent said they were at least ’satisfied’ with the services provided by the government, while about a third said the services were ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.
This was the consensus of a group of 60 Singaporeans who took part in a focus group discussion organised by management consulting firm Accenture last August.
The research findings - which will be made public later today - showed Singapore coming in second, only behind Sydney, in terms of how its citizens perceive the quality of the city they live in.
The other six cities surveyed by Accenture were London, Berlin, New York, Paris, Madrid and Los Angeles. These cities were selected as they are places where Accenture is currently engaged in.
This first-of-its-kind research study was commissioned to solicit views on how effective the government was in its public service delivery, and whether they were doing enough to meet the citizens’ needs and improve their overall quality of life.
The 60 Singaporeans were reflective of the country’s make-up in age, education, income and type of residence, among other areas, said Accenture.
Despite a rosy 2007 which saw a record number of jobs created and better-than-expected economic growth, a third of the Singapore participants listed the rising cost of living here as one of their top three concerns.
Coming in second on the list was health - specifically on costs and the restrictive nature of the Medishield and Medifund schemes - while the third concern was employment.
The survey did throw up one key finding: a growing number of Singaporeans want the flexibility of choice in order to take better charge of their own lives.
This was where Singapore stood out from the other seven cities when asked to rank nine different principles of public service value, which included areas such as transparency, efficiency and equality.
‘Choice’ was in the top four options for Singaporeans, but interestingly did not make the lists of any of the other cities.
Explaining this, Accenture Institute for Public Service Value director Greg Parston said this proved that Singaporeans were ‘looking for the government to empower them to make informed choices’.
‘Singaporeans are looking for a greater role to co-create public value, a bigger role in shaping future priorities of their country,’ he told the Singapore media in a conference call from London.
The poll found that 77 per cent of Singaporeans wanted to have a greater say in how to improve their country.
Citizens should be free to voice their opinions, and the government should take these into consideration before imposing new policies or regulations on key issues such as one’s Central Provident Fund (CPF) account, said the Accenture report.
It added that while Singaporeans wanted to be responsible for their well-being and that of their families too, they did not want government handouts or seek to be guided in every aspect of their lives.
As one participant explained during the forum, citizens want the government to ‘educate and assist, but not restrict’.
Another strong message that arose from the Singapore forum was the expectation that the government should deliver better value for money and be accountable for all public spending - especially when, in some areas, it has imposed additional user charges, said the report.
‘This, despite a generally prosperous economy, left many with less disposable household income,’ it said.
Overall, however, those in the Singapore forum agreed that citizens should be proud of the country’s success since independence, with the Republic having done well economically and put together an education system that is among the best in the world.
Source : Business Times - 05 May 2008
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