At last, Singapore had introduced a mobile app for car park payments.
While we should all welcome this development, we must also realize that it shows clearly a serious disease that has inflicted Singapore for decades.
What is this disease?
Have you wondered why it took so long for this mobile app to appear? It has been actively used in other cities under more difficult situations.
We had a HDB/URA parking coupons system for a few decades. It would have been logical, and simple, for HDB/URA to change to a mobile app a few years ago.
Well, nothing moves in Singapore until the prime minister says so. And when the prime minister makes an announcement, things can move very quickly. In just a few months.
Is this not a serious disease? Are we going to do nothing until the prime minister says so? Is there no room for innovation and creativity? Are our administrators unable to see how to introduce change to make life better for every one?
Some cynics wil say that they do not want to make the change, because HDB/URA are benefiting from the large cash float when motorists pay for the coupons in advance. Furthermore, the earn the cash whent he coupons are lost or are not used.
This is another serious disease. Are our public bodies so focused on making money, even if it is done at the expense of the public and at high cost to the nation? You can imagine the unnecessary work, and the related expenses that has to be done in selling the coupons, accounting for the cash payments, and in cleaning up the tabs from the coupons.
If I am not wrong, the public administrators have KPIs that determine their performance and perhaps their bonuses. If they increase the revenue and profits for their agencies, they show a better KPI. If they introduce cost to the country and trouble for the public, it is not reflected negatively in their KPI.
For this reason, I have been strongly against the use of KPI to measure performance and bonuses for the public sector. I think it is a very bad idea.
I hope that our prime minister realises the two serious diseases that have hampered Singapore for the past few decades. I believe that he is intelligent enough to know what I am saying.
Tan Kin Lian
While we should all welcome this development, we must also realize that it shows clearly a serious disease that has inflicted Singapore for decades.
What is this disease?
Have you wondered why it took so long for this mobile app to appear? It has been actively used in other cities under more difficult situations.
We had a HDB/URA parking coupons system for a few decades. It would have been logical, and simple, for HDB/URA to change to a mobile app a few years ago.
Well, nothing moves in Singapore until the prime minister says so. And when the prime minister makes an announcement, things can move very quickly. In just a few months.
Is this not a serious disease? Are we going to do nothing until the prime minister says so? Is there no room for innovation and creativity? Are our administrators unable to see how to introduce change to make life better for every one?
Some cynics wil say that they do not want to make the change, because HDB/URA are benefiting from the large cash float when motorists pay for the coupons in advance. Furthermore, the earn the cash whent he coupons are lost or are not used.
This is another serious disease. Are our public bodies so focused on making money, even if it is done at the expense of the public and at high cost to the nation? You can imagine the unnecessary work, and the related expenses that has to be done in selling the coupons, accounting for the cash payments, and in cleaning up the tabs from the coupons.
If I am not wrong, the public administrators have KPIs that determine their performance and perhaps their bonuses. If they increase the revenue and profits for their agencies, they show a better KPI. If they introduce cost to the country and trouble for the public, it is not reflected negatively in their KPI.
For this reason, I have been strongly against the use of KPI to measure performance and bonuses for the public sector. I think it is a very bad idea.
I hope that our prime minister realises the two serious diseases that have hampered Singapore for the past few decades. I believe that he is intelligent enough to know what I am saying.
Tan Kin Lian
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