4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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Urban Transformation Centre’s creative comprehensive organizational change has made breaking of silos between government agencies and private sectors possible. UTC is recognized as the forefront of innovation due the ability in bringing all the agencies that include private and NGOs under one roof which was never attempted before. The operation hours beyond normal office hours where government services’ are available after 5pm and on weekends is first of its kind in the world. The innovativeness of UTC is further proven by the use of existing government building to establish UTC. It is significantly low cost as well helps government agencies which are the building owners to generate income from an abandoned building and salvage the sunk cost of constructing the building.
The time taken for the renovation which is between 4 weeks to 16 weeks is a trend setter and a benchmark that haven’t been achieved by any projects. The continuous monitoring and thorough procurement process in selecting a credible contractor makes this possible. UTC is unique from each other as existing buildings are used. UTC varies from markets, shopping complex, parking space as well as bus terminals converted to become Urban Transformation Centre. Most of the buildings still retains their original scope such a market although only partly.
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5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The Ministry of finance together with the State Government and local authority partners in implementing the establishment of UTC in each State capital and main towns. By December 2016, a total of 18 UTC was established to meet the needs of the people. With quick services, has put UTC as people centric.
At the beginning of the establishment of UTC, the main factor was a strategic location is seen with regard to the local population. The earliest UTC is Melaka which operated in 2012. It has given benefits to local residents up to 800,000 people. With the formation of 18 UTC, services have been given to 44 million customers for the period 2012 to 2016.
The benefits expected to be realized by specific deliverables:
(i) The community will get direct benefit where people can get the services immediately. All UTC are strategic located where the public transportation hub existed to serve the people especially to vulnerable people
(ii) Indirectly, the public benefit of the UTC through career opportunities through Jobs Centre that also are in UTC. But business opportunities were also obtained for local entrepreneurs who wish to promote local products. Low income people assisted with the introduction of entrepreneur incubator for the purpose of economic development.
Most of the program conducted in UTC such as Jobs Fair@UTC, Women Bazar and Entrepreneur Hub give focus to increase the people's economy in the category of most urban poor and most vulnerable people. UTC also invites the Ministry of Women, Family and Community to implement economic and social program to help single mother and women who are low income.
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6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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As mentioned earlier the whole funding for refurbishment and upgrading work is financed by MOF which is significantly lower cost than constructing a new building.
Apart from the financing from MOF, all other partner agencies need to allocate their human resource to provide services at UTC. As UTC is focusing on low cost and high impact, no additional staffing are given to agencies, thus all agencies are required to redeploy their staff from existing branches in ensuring the staffs are utilized optimally.
With initial funding by the Federal Government through the renovation of the existing building has changed the work culture. Move in special teams have given space and opportunity for all parties to implement their respective roles. The ERRC method as terminology, implementation plan has been designed as a guide to establishment of UTC. A major step in the establishment of UTC is ongoing monitoring by the Project Director. This is important since each UTC is completed between 4 to 16 weeks.
Furthermore, the cooperation and support of the Federal and State Government agencies in the establishment of UTC could speed up decision-making. Involvement with all sectors has established a sense of belonging to the UTC. Strong leadership becomes indicator to the plan of implementation. The nature of good leadership is important in addressing issues of bureaucracy and procedures while performing the project.
The building owner will also act as the UTC Manager, tasked to monitor the performance and ensuring smooth day to day operation.
UTC’s innovation can be assessed from the policy stage up to implementation stage.
Policy/Strategy Innovation: The change in working hours of up to 10pm, 7 days a week excluding public holidays including government and private entities for UTC purpose.
Planning and Designing Innovation: From the beginning it was decided that UTC should not represent a typical government office structure where people will have to get access passes. UTC is designed in such a way that it represents as a Service Mall and provides ambience that are modern and sophisticated in line with the people’s demand. The fact that UTC buildings varies in terms of their initial usage adds weightage for this claims as UTC buildings consist of shopping malls, markets, bus terminals as well parking spaces.
Financing Arrangement Innovation: Federal government provides the fund for the refurbishment of a state owned building itself is an innovation. The building then is used for UTC purpose, whereby the responsibility in ensuring the success of the project is shared equally between federal and state government.
Governance and Administration Innovation: One of the unique arrangements in the management of UTC is that all the agencies operating in UTC will be answerable to the UTC Manager. UTC Managers are the one appointed by the building owner which can be local government or SEDC. While the agencies operating in UTC varies from federal, state, statutory bodies or even private entities reporting directly to their respective headquarters, they still need to follow the instruction of UTC Managers in ensuring smooth operation of UTC. Although the UTC Manager plays no role in assessing them or in their career path in terms of monetary rewards or promotions, these agencies still abide by the guidelines of the UTC Manager. This true blue ocean practice can be clearly seen in UTC where the spirit in ensuring the success of the initiative is given priority compared to personal achievements.
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7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The establishment of UTC relies heavily on Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) which emphasizes on collaboration and partnership at all levels. The lead ministry for UTC is Ministry of Finance (MOF) Malaysia whereby all the policies, establishments and funding comes through them while the state governments mostly represented by local authorities (LA) such as Ipoh City Council, Kuala Lumpur City Hall or state economic development corporation (SEDC) acts as the superintending officer of the projects. This public – public partnership involves federal and state government collaboration where the federal government through MOF brings in the initiative and funding while the state government through LA or SEDC provides the building.
The next level partnership involves public- -private-community partnership where the federal agencies, state agencies, statutory bodies, NGOs and private agencies that provides direct services to the people joins UTC and agrees to operate beyond their normal working hours and days. This kind of partnership makes it very convenient to the people to get access to services where they only need to visit one place (UTC) to get all the core services from obtaining passport (Immigration Department – Federal Agency), obtaining hawkers’ license (Local Authority – State Government), inquiring on their income tax (Income Tax Board - statutory body), paying their utilities (Utility Company – Private Agency) as well conduct meeting of their NGO.
This partnership is definitely a win-win situation for all parties involved as Federal Government manages to deliver on their promise in bringing the services to the people. The state government manages to generate income through their abandoned/underutilized building while at the same time make the surrounding of UTC viable and create a good image for the city.
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8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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UTC was the most successful Initiatives among the 105 NBOS Initiatives. It can be shown by the number of the transactions recorded/customers at UTC. Since the first UTC was established in June 2012 until the 18th UTC on December 2016, UTC recorded more than 44million customers until February 2017.
Besides that UTC also plays a role as a career hub. There are a lot of activities for job seekers. They do job matching and the interview also can be done in UTC’s. Most of the time, once interview done, they can get the result right after the interview. Statistics for job replacement in UTC’s are 16,210 people.
Other than core services, entrepreneurship development is also a role of UTC. Therefore, UTC also known plays a major role as an entrepreneur hub. It gives an opportunity to small business set up in UTC – insurance and food. One such example is Perak Best products in UTC’s Perak.
This Initiative was effective as it can reduce cost to people since they can get the service under one roof and speedy services. People also can get the services after office hours and during weekend so they can fully utilized their time in the office and they can become effective worker. These initiatives also increase Happiness Index of people since they can get multiple services under one roof.
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9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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During the early implementation of UTC, the main obstacle are resistant from the staffs which is they refused to work 8.00 am to 10.00 pm as it is a drastic change in their working hours. They also have to work on shift and sacrifice their weekend. However, with the engagement from the top to the ground, they find out a few alternatives to make sure Happiness Index of staffs at par. To make sure staff had their weekend they were implement job redeployment and also job rotation.
Besides that, since there are many agencies in UTC, it’s quite hard to make sure they are following UTC’s Standard of Procedure (SOP). This is the time where the UTC manager had to play significant role where they have to have a periodically meeting to solve raised issue and complaint.
Year by year, UTC increased and had caused a lot of agencies lack of staffs. Some agencies had to put only one officer from 8.00 am to 10.00 pm. So to overcome this problem, they are doing multitasking job. It means one person can answer for a lot of agencies. For example, officer from Job Malaysia can also perform SOCSO’s task and reciprocate. Other than that, to overcome staffing problem, they also implement One Serve. One Serve consist National Registration Department, Immigration Department and Road Transport Department. Before this, all this agencies are stand alone and also doing their general task. But under One serve, they were put together and does each other work meaning National Registration Department can produce output for Road Transport Department and so on.
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