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Do away with ‘template’ responses, please

After reading the report “Public service has lost its heart, MPs say” (March 2), I would like to offer my view that those working on the frontlines of public service — who interact the most with the community — contribute heavily to this perception.

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Ann Staveley-Taylor

After reading the report “Public service has lost its heart, MPs say” (March 2), I would like to offer my view that those working on the frontlines of public service — who interact the most with the community — contribute heavily to this perception.

It is not exclusive to public institutions, of course, because even banks are guilty of it, but from my varied encounters with government agencies, including the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority and the police, I would say that the problem lies with the officers’ inability to respond or reply appropriately and with common sense to those seeking help.

Feedback by the public is always personally written to these agencies, yet their responses come to us like standard templates — those that are totally unrelated to what you have written or to the solutions you seek.

With this “robotic” approach, the inability to engage the public other than to give standard cookie-cutter answers, and the inevitable lack of action, it then comes as no surprise that some feel that “service” from the public service is sometimes non-existent.

I once had to resort to my Member of Parliament in Sembawang to get an outcome. He listened, understood and acted accordingly. Yet, the issue could have been resolved if the relevant institution had bothered to act likewise.

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