The creation of the Cut Waste Panel
underscores the Government's resolve to continue delivering
excellent public services despite increasing fiscal
pressure. The Panel will be chaired by the Head of Civil
Service, Mr Peter Ong, and comprise members drawn from
the public, private and people sector. The Panel will
consider all suggestions on where the Government can
cut waste or remove frills.
The public demands quality public
services. These come at a cost, which ultimately must
be paid by the public through taxes, fees and charges.
There must be consensus on how to ensure spending on
public services represents good value for money and
meets the needs of our people. The Panel encourages
all members of the public to write in with their ideas
on the public services which the Government should spend
or cut back, as well as on areas where there could be
savings.
When the Cut Waste Panel secretariat
receives a suggestion, it will assess whether the suggestion
concerns waste in the public sector. If a suggestion
concerns private organisations, the secretariat will
inform the suggestor that his ideas will be forwarded
to the appropriate organisations and advise him to
follow up with them. Sometimes, the secretariat receives
complaints about poor service from public sector agencies,
or proposals about devices that may reduce costs. For
such cases, the secretariat will either respond directly
to the suggestor or forward the case to the appropriate
agencies for them to take note.
When the secretariat
receives a suggestion about how the public sector can
reduce waste, it will email it
to the Deputy Secretary or Chief Executive Officer
of the appropriate public sector agency or agencies
and request a response. The email will be copied to
the Permanent Secretary. To protect the identity of
the suggestor, the secretariat will remove any text,
e.g. email address, that could identify the suggestor.
Agencies normally respond within 2 weeks, although
complicated or ambiguous suggestions inevitably require
more time, including additional correspondence between
the agencies and the suggestor through the secretariat.
All
suggestions and agency responses are cleared by the
agency’s Permanent Secretary and reviewed
by the Panel. If the Panel finds a response inadequate,
it may direct the secretariat to work with the agency
concerned to improve its response. Alternatively, the
Panel may invite the head of the agency to a discussion
about the particular issue.
For straightforward cases,
the secretariat aims to respond to a suggestor within
22 days if he had provided
a valid email address. Due to the volume of suggestions,
email is the only feasible channel for the secretariat
to send the response. As for follow-up correspondence
on a suggestion, it is usually more efficient for
a suggestor to correspond directly with the officer
who
signed the response. The secretariat therefore encourages
suggestors to do so whenever possible.
The secretariat
publishes the suggestions and responses on this website
to help the public understand the
work of the Cut Waste Panel. The record of the
suggestions received so far shows that many are very
similar,
e.g.
suggestions about switching off street lights.
The secretariat therefore invites anyone who plans
to
make a suggestion to browse the published suggestions
and
responses or at least the Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQs) first to see if the issue in question has
already been raised and addressed.
