United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Describe in no more than 500 words, the problem to which the initiative was a solution, including major issues, trends and conditions, as well as which social groups were affected.

Prior to the introduction of MyID, there is no policy, standard or guideline in generating reference numbers for the services provided to the citizens. Agencies can generate their own reference numbers for their services. This has resulted in various reference numbers for the citizens to remember. For example, if a citizen wishes to transact with the Employee Provident Fund (EPF), he needs to provide his EPF number. Whilst transacting with the Inland Revenue Board requires the citizen to provide his/her tax filing number.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
In the journey to transform the public service delivery to greater heights, the Malaysian Government never stops exploring ways in improving its service delivery to the citizens. The concept of 1Malaysia: People First and Performance Now, has seen the rationale of having Only One Reference Number for every citizen to facilitate the citizens in dealing with government agencies. MyID, launched in January 2010, is an initiative where the citizen’s Identity Card Number is used as the Sole Reference Number for Malaysian citizens when dealing with government agencies. The implementation of this initiative involves all government agencies at the federal, state and local authority levels. The agency’s front- liners who deal directly with Malaysian citizens play an important role to ensure the success of the MyID initiative. They are required to ask only for the IC number as the reference number when citizens as individuals transact with government agencies via the various delivery channels, such as counters, telephones, kiosks and online services. Any documents or letters issued to citizen should have the IC number printed as the reference number. However, the existing file number used may be retained for the purpose of internal reference within agencies. To date, a total of 1429 services provided by various government agencies have implemented MyID and all these services are able to facilitate Malaysian citizens when they transact with the related agencies. To measure the impact from citizens’ perspective, the MyID polling was conducted at the Malaysian Government portal (www.malaysia.gov.my) from 1st January to 31st August 2011. The result shows that 90% of the respondents agreed that the implementation of MyID initiative has facilitated the citizens in transacting with government agencies. Based on the above result, it can be seen that the citizens agree, that MyID has benefited them and met its objective in providing expeditious service to its intended recipients.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
In no more than 500 words, specify who contributed to the design and/or implementation of the initiative, including relevant civil servants, public institutions, organizations, citizens, NGOs, private sector, etc. This initiative was the brain child of the Prime Minister of Malaysia and is based on the concept of “1 Reference Number for all Transactions”. To realise the objective of this initiative, the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), is entrusted to initiate, drive, implement and monitor this initiative. The implementation approach and strategy was designed and implemented by a small team under the ICT Sector, MAMPU. The implementation of MyID applies to all Government agencies at all levels, approximately 700 agencies (federal, state and local councils) which provide services related to citizens as an individual. All types of services dealing with the citizens as an individual are required to implement MyID. With this initiative, citizens are able to transact using their Identity Card number no matter where they are via the various delivery channels provided by the agencies such as counters, telephones, online services, kiosks and short messaging system (SMS). The stakeholder for this initiative is the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The main objective of implementing MyID is to provide convenience, hassle free and speedy service to the citizens in transacting with the government agencies by only providing their Identity Card number as the sole reference number. The target group for this initiative is the Malaysian citizens’, who are the customers’ to the services provided by the government agencies. In implementing MyID, the first step taken by MAMPU was to conduct a readiness survey to all government agencies. The results showed that about 54% of the Government agencies were already using the citizen’s IC number as the reference number for their services and 46% were using other reference numbers. To ensure the successful implementation of this initiative, all government agencies have been instructed to take measures in ensuring that only the Identity Card number is used as the sole reference number. In addition, all front-liners are required to be trained and knowledgeable. Agencies must also ensure the related processes and ICT systems at the agencies and the existing delivery channels such as counters, kiosks, telephones and online services are ready to support this initiative. To facilitate further, MAMPU has published a directory of the MyID services for the general public to view at MyID website, http://www.mampu.gov.my/myid_info/index.htm.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
MyID initiative is created through innovation and improvement to the services provided by the government agencies related to citizens as an individual. It does not involve the issuance of any new identification card to the citizens. What the agencies need to do is just making the citizen’s Identity Card number as the Sole Reference Number for their services. To incorporate that requirement, agencies need to change their existing reference number to the citizen’s Identity Card number. This involves some changes to the agencies existing systems whether manual or IT systems by making the Identity Card number as the key and reference number. By implementing the citizen’s Identity Card number as the Sole Reference Number, government agencies are able to facilitate, provide convenience, hassle free and speedy transactions to the citizens. Besides expediting service delivery, problems arising from lost, untraceable or misplaced documents are eliminated. What is most important, citizens no longer need to memorise various reference numbers generated by the various agencies for the different services. With this initiative, they only need to remember One Number that is their Identity Card Number. The chronology of MyID implementation are as follows: • April 2009 - Conducted readiness survey to 700 over government agencies • May-June 2009 - Conducted awareness programme to all government agencies • July-August 2009 - Organised clinics for the agencies • January 2010 - Launching of MyID initiative by the Prime Minister of Malaysia • Sept 2010 until now - Updating of new MyID services into MyID Website - Monitoring the implementation of MyID services through meetings and mystery shopping

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Implementing such an initiative covering the entire public sector poses a lot of challenges and obstacles that need to be addressed, especially when it is a fast track initiative and government agencies are required to implement it immediately. At the initial stage, the challenge is to make the agencies understand the concept of MyID and how to implement it within the timeline given. Initially there was a lack of understanding and awareness of this initiative. There was a misconception that it involved the issuance of a new card to the citizens, whilst others thought MyID is a new system developed by MAMPU. To manage the misperceptions, MAMPU has rigorously conducted awareness programs and promotional activities to ensure that both the agencies and the public understand what MyID is all about. Awareness program include briefing sessions to all Government agencies, presenting papers on MyID initiative in seminars and workshops and participating in various exhibitions. Promotional activities for MyID were also conducted/published through various channels such as newspapers, television, radio, and portals/websites. A series of clinic sessions with the agencies were also conducted to help agencies in defining their services correctly. The list of agencies/services implementing MyID is published in a booklet entitled MyID Directory and is available at the MyID website for public viewing. Addressing the mindset is usually the biggest challenge. As with all initiatives, there needs to be a mindset change to reinforce this initiative. Government agencies need to ensure that the front-liners are trained and ready to execute the change. They only need to request the citizen’s Identity Card number as the Sole Reference Number when dealing with the citizens at all delivery channels provided for the services. All documents issued and provided to the citizens as an individual should also reflect the citizen’s Identity Card number as the reference number. There were also concerns from the public about the security aspect of this initiative. To address this concern, all agencies have been instructed to ensure that necessary security elements are put in place for services that involve confidential information. Agencies are required to introduce a second level check to verify the individual’s identity before any information is released or accessed.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
To realise the Prime Minister’s aspiration, MAMPU is leveraging on the existing human resources with no additional cost. There is no budget allocated for this initiative and all government agencies are requested to implement this initiative within their means. The main tasks of the MyID core team at MAMPU is to provide advise and assistance (through clinic sessions), conduct promotions and awareness programmes and monitor the MyID implementation at all government agencies.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
MyID initiative is basically leveraging on the existing platform/systems at the agencies. It is an initiative where the citizen’s Identity Card number is used as the Sole Reference Number. All services that are related to citizens as an individual will have to incorporate this requirement. This initiative applies to the entire public sector. It is a simple, yet creative, innovative and impactful solution to address the problem faced by citizens namely remembering the various reference numbers in conducting transactions with the government. It can be implemented at any organisation even in the private sector with minimal changes to the existing systems. The concept of MyID can be replicated, adapted and adopted by others. The pre-requisite in implementing this initiative is to establish a unique identity number for every citizen and that number should be captured whenever citizens transact with the agencies. MyID initiative is considered a step forward in preparing the Government agencies towards the implementation of data sharing concept.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
With the implementation of the MyID initiative, transacting with the government agencies is so much easier and faster as citizens are only required to provide their identity card number instead of the various reference numbers which were previously issued by government agencies for their services. The key elements contributing to the success of this initiative is the dedication, cooperation and commitment of all parties including the project team, and Government agencies at all levels. The awareness and change management programme conducted created a meaningful insight to this initiative and its successful implementation. As of December 15th 2011, a total of 1429 services are already using the identity card number as the sole reference number. The number of services using MyID is anticipated to increase as this is a continuous project.


Institution Name:		Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		MOHAMAD ZABIDI ZAINAL
Title:		DATO'
Telephone/ Fax:		0388723000/0388723721
Institution's / Project's Website:		http://www.mampu.gov.my
E-mail:		myid@mampu.gov.my
Address:		LEVEL 6, BLOCK B2
Postal Code:		62502
City:		PUTRAJAYA
State/Province:		PUTRAJAYA
Country:		Malaysia

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information