The state government is improving and strengthening its service delivery to the people by introducing the Service Sarawak Centre.
According to the Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office (Integrity and Ombudsman) Datuk Talib Zulpilip, Service Sarawak is the concept of ‘no wrong counter’ where a person can be served at any routine transactional services of any agencies at any counter.
“As part of the continuous effort of Sarawak Civil Service Transformation Journey Plan, we are going to create history with the launching of Service Sarawak Centre.
“This Service Sarawak will be a major shift and change in the way we provide our service at the government counters,” said Talib in his winding up speech at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting here yesterday.
He noted among the objectives of the Service Sarawak are to enhance customer experience in dealing with the government, delivering an integrated Government to Citizens (G2C) frontline routine transactional services through multiple channels namely digital, counter, and contact centre, and also to reduce cost to the government in providing services to the public.
“Service Sarawak’s operation will be implemented in phases, whereby Phase 1 will be implemented at the Kuching Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) focusing on state wide payment collection services for electricity, water and assessment bill for 26 local authorities.
“For Phase 2 (to be commencing in 2019), it will be established at UTC Sibu, UTC Miri and some other major towns, and it will include frontline routine transactional services from state agencies apart from payment collection services,” he explained.
Meanwhile, he stressed the RM31 million Darul Hana Musical Fountain was implemented through the design-and-build method and complied with the Standard Operating Procedures of Kuching City Hall and the Local Authorities Financial Regulations 1997.
The project has been tabled and gone through a special committee on costs chaired by the state financial secretary.
He said it was shocking that Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong claimed the project could be completed at a cost of only RM5 million if it was done through open tender.
“The state government is willing to share the design with the Yang Berhormat to implement the musical fountain at a cost of RM5 million if she is really confident she can complete the project according to the specifications. She is welcome to it,” he said.
Talib said the project was very complex and needed special expertise with the scope of the project including supervision costs over two years’ and five years’ design guarantee.
He gave the example of the Dubai Fountain in United Arab Emirates which was built in 2009 at a cost of RM910 million or US$218 million.
“The Musical Fountain operates on the latest technology with a fountain with a width of 100 metres, 372 special nozzles which can spray water up to 60 metres and a cascade fountain of 25 metres,” he said.
Commenting on the solar hybrid project issue to supply electricity supply to rural schools in Sarawak, he said it involved a private company, Jepak Holdings.
He said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was looking into the issue and several witnesses had been called to give their statements.
“So, claims that there are efforts to cover the case are merely accusations meant to throw a bad light on the good image of the state government,” he said.
