The Ministry of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council (NPCC) on the Smart Process Framework which will, among others, assist Ministries and Departments to re-engineer their business processes and render these organisations flexible, citizen-centric and responsive to the needs of the public, employees and other stakeholders.
The Smart Process project is an important pillar in the Public Sector Business Transformation Strategy and will indicate the required steps regarding Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) and facilitate the implementation of transformation initiatives and institutional reviews.
The signature ceremony was held this morning at SICOM Building in Port Louis, in the presence of the Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah; the Minister of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms, Mr Teeruthraj Hurdoyal; and other personalities. The signatories were the Secretary for Public Service, Mr Bojrazsingh Boyramboli, and the Executive Director of the NPCC, Mr Ashit Kumar Gungah.
The Memorandum of Agreement covers a period of five years with a Rs 2 million budget for the NPCC to implement BPR exercises in Ministries and Departments, undertake capacity building programmes on best practices and methodologies, and promote a culture of continuous improvements in the Public Service. Subsequently, a Smart Process Framework Manual will be developed. The NPCC is also expected, in collaboration with the Kaizen Institute, to empower officers in the Public Sector to lead, and implement process improvements projects.
In his remarks, the Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives stated his confidence that with the realisation of the Smart Process Framework, the Public Sector would undergo a significant re-engineering with streamlined processes, promotion of a culture of innovation, elimination of waste and enhanced productivity. He stressed that the Framework would lay much emphasis on digital transformation, in line with the Digital Government Transformation Strategy 2018-2022. This Strategy advocated that all Ministries and Departments should implement e-business strategies in their respective sectors, to ensure business continuity in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
For his part, the Minister of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms affirmed that the signature of the Memorandum of Agreement and its implementation came at an opportune time as it coincided with the recent publication of the 2021 Pay Research Bureau (PRB) Report. Mr Hurdoyal was of the view that the PRB Report had sent a strong signal on the urgent needs for reforms and transformation in the Public Sector, which were a sine qua non condition for efficiency in the provision of citizen-centric services to the population.
According to Mr Hurdoyal, the Public Service should be able to surf on the wave of innovative technologies to provide seamless personalised services to the citizens. He added that the Memorandum of Agreement would enable the elaboration and implementation of a strategy, geared at replacing obsolete, manual, paper-intensive processes into agile and digitally-enabled ones, which would result in the enhancement of citizens’ experience and well-being.
