Singapore has won a special award in the United Nations (UN) e-Government Survey, clinching the No. 2 spot in the global e-participation ranking which recognises the country’s efforts in using online tools to create opportunities for greater participation and social inclusiveness.

At the UN Awards ceremony: (From left) Dr John Keung, CEO, Building and Construction Authority; Mr Albert Chua, Singapore Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations – New York; RADM (NS) Sim Gim Guan, Deputy Secretary, Industry and Information, MICA; Ms Ong Lih Ling, Director, Singapore eGovernment Leadership Centre/Government Chief Information Office Service Management & Capability Development, IDA; and Mr Tan Siong Thye, Chief District Judge, Subordinate Courts.

The award was presented to the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA), and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) in New York on 25 June 2012. It was one of three significant wins for the Singapore Public Service this year, with the Subordinate Courts of Singapore and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) also receiving the prestigious United Nations Public Service Award at the same ceremony.

The UN e-Government Survey is a biennial comparative survey report that forms an important international benchmark for gauging the 193 member states’ use of infocomm to improve the quality of basic economic and social services and to involve the people in public policy-making.

The e-participation index measures “e-information sharing” (the use of the Internet to disseminate relevant information by governments to citizens), “e-consultation” (interaction with stakeholders), and “e-decision making” (engaging stakeholders in the decision-making process).

As part of the eGov2015 masterplan, the Singapore Government has been making efforts to widen and deepen e-engagement and finding new ways to tap on the wisdom and resources of netizens.  Citizens are invited and informed of public consultation topics via alerts sent through mobile and social media applications.  The Singapore Government has also been exploring the use of new platforms to engage citizens and garner ideas.

The REACH (Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenry@Home) portal, for example, was launched in 2006 to invite public feedback via electronic channels. Since 2009, REACH has been the Government’s official e-engagement platform, tapping on new media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to engage the public on national issues. A wide array of e-participation tools such as discussion forums, web chats, and blogs is also available on the REACH website.

The UN e-government survey 2012 report also highlighted that Singapore is among the leaders in the use of private cloud computing for leveraging ICT infrastructure and services. In 2009, Singapore became the first government in Asia to equip all its teachers with Web 2.0 communication and collaboration tools under an open standard cloud platform. Singapore’s citizen’s portal also provides an extensive range of online payment services that allow payments such as taxes, fees, fines and licences to be made through multiple channels such as credit card, direct debit, Internet banking and even by phone.

Singapore’s success in harnessing infocomm was also evident in the BCA’s win for its Contractors Registration System (CRS), which was placed second in the category of “Preventing and Combating Corruption in the Public Service”.

The CRS was set up in 1985 as a centralised, one-stop registration system for contractors who wish to tender for public sector construction projects in Singapore. It was lauded by the United Nations for providing a fair and transparent process for contractors tendering for public sector projects.

The system spells out a uniform set of registration criteria such as relevant experience and track record, professional and technical personnel, and financial capacity. It then grades and places the contractors into different types of construction work and the value of contracts that they can tender for. Public agencies will then evaluate these qualifying contractors objectively through the Price-Quality Method before awarding to the successful tenderer.

The Subordinate Courts’ HELP (Helping to Empower Litigants-in-Person) Centre also won second place in the UN Public Service Award category of "Improving the Delivery of Public Services". The HELP Centre was launched on 26 February 2010 by the Subordinate Courts to make justice accessible to all court users, particularly those who do not have or do not want lawyers.

The Subordinate Courts of Singapore and BCA were represented by Chief District Judge Tan Siong Thye and BCA Chief Executive Officer Dr John Keung respectively, while RADM(NS) Sim Gim Guan, Deputy Secretary (Information and Corporate Management), MICA, led a team comprising officers from MICA, REACH and IDA to receive the award from Mr Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations.