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Online Reporting Centre
National Environment Agency
Singapore

The Problem

Currently, there are limitations in the way public lodge reports with Government agencies. The jurisdiction of each Government agency differs and public may not be aware of what each agency handles. There are numerous grey or overlapping areas, which create much confusion and inconvenience to the public.

Moreover, each agency has different channels for reporting. Some agencies offer call-centres, counter services, while others offer email/e-services services, etc.

Generally, there is no common channel or standardised procedure across the board. Hence, the members of public are confused over where to report and how best to report.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Online Reporting Centre (ORC), an Internet-based e-Service provides a one-stop reporting centre that allows public to report on any matters across multiple agencies, without having to know the jurisdiction of each agency.

With the consistent channel and processes, the complexity of Government boundaries are made transparent, resulting in minimal confusion, increased convenience and customer satisfaction.

Once a report is received, ORC allows agencies to collaborate among themselves to better manage grey areas, resulting in shorter turnaround time.

ORC also allows complainant to track status of reports.

Knowledge of outcome is retained in ORC to serve as learning lessons, resulting in quicker and consistent processing of similar cases.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
National Environment Agency (NEA) proposed to implement ORC for reporting of environmental-related matters. The proposal was assessed by the e-Citizen Council to be of value; hence NEA was tasked to expand the proposal to cover multiple agencies and reports.

(a) Strategies

 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.
Project Committee involving senior representatives from participating agencies was formed to steer the project. The committee was responsible for providing strategic guidance, defining requirements, policies and implementation of the IT system.

Strong mandate was also set by the e-Citizen Council for the delivery of the system.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Feb 2006 Project committees formed.

Oct 2006 Requirements finalized

Nov 2006 Tender for IT system awarded.

Oct 2007 ORC launched.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Getting the buy-in was a great challenge, as each agency was confident that the channels offered by their agency is the best mechanism to engage their customer group. There was reluctance introducing another channel.

Agencies often have conflicting requirements because of varying operational environment. It was challenging for the system to cater for everyone’s operational needs.

The reluctance was overcome by allowing agencies to sustain their existing channels but embrace ORC as an additional integrated channel.

ORC offered consistent reporting structure/form, but was made customizable to meet agencies’ specific requirements.

(d) Use of Resources

 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
Development cost - S$280k
Annual maintenance - S$100k

Project committee members - 15

No additional resources required to operate ORC as reports submitted though ORC are attended to by the existing Customer Support Officers in each agency.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
ORC have been receiving positive feedbacks and seeing increase in the number transactions.

Discussions are underway to expansion ORC to become a Whole of Government e-Service.

ORC is developed in a standard web-based platform over Microsoft Sharepoint, thus its portable to other Governments.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Important to have strong management and clear ownership to steer projects involving multi-agencies.

Good change management, governance and project management skills are required to see through successful implementation.

Ensure sufficient funding is available and agencies are not required foot bill.

Project team has to be established to ensure that agencies sustain the engagement, contents are up-to-date, and service levels to public are constantly met to sustain confidence in system.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   National Environment Agency
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Elan Arunasalam
Title:   Assistant Director (Application Services  
Telephone/ Fax:   67319926
Institution's / Project's Website:   67329437
E-mail:   elan_arunasalam@nea.gov.sg  
Address:   Environment Building, Level 5, 40 Scotts Road, Singapore
Postal Code:   228131
City:  
State/Province:  
Country:   Singapore

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