Unfazed by the mammoth task of revamping the civil service, the new man in charge of doing just that, Idris Jala today announced the completion of Phase 1 of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) initiative, saying that there are "early signs of delivery" in the civil service.

NONE "For example, there has been increasing number of police and RELA officers in criminal hotspots," he said at a joint press conference with National Unity and Performance Management chief Koh Tsu Koon.

Jala, the former head of Malaysia Airlines, was snapped up by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to spearhead the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) under the PM's Department.

Pemandu is the organisation set up earlier this year to oversee the implementation of the government key performance indicator (KPI) initiatives.

To perform this task, Jala was made a Minister in the Prime Minister's Department to work with Koh Tsu Koon, the minister in charge of the government's KPI scheme.

Talking to reporters today on his task in hand, Jala said Pemandu was the catalyst of change in changing the civil service.

He said that in the next 100 days, Pemandu will start focussing on three priority activities - conducting a total of eight labs, one for each of the six National Key Results Areas (N-KRAs) and two other focus areas as well as organising a Government Transformation Programme Open House for the public.

He spoke to reporters at the unveiling of a new Government Transformation Programme (GTP) under Phase II of the Pemandu initiative.

"The GTP initiative is to put meat to the unity and 1Malaysia concept.

"Execution under Phase II or the implementation stage, approved by the cabinet recently, commences immediately," he said.

He said the aims of GTP were:

1) to transform the government to be even more effective and accountable, and

2) to transform Malaysia into an advanced, united, safe and just society with a high quality of life for all

Feedback to be taken from everyone

Jala also explained that the purpose of the eight labs was to provide a safe environment for "explosion of ideas, experimentation and discussion" before implementation of any initiatives to avoid a "false start".

He added that participants for each lab will be drawn from the best talent in the civil service to work towards clearly defined deliverables with highly transparent and intensive monitoring of progress.

NONE "The labs will build on work done, experience and insight gained by members of the civil service, with participants adopting intense open debates and a 'hands-on deck' approach to the topics.

"Towards the end of the period, they will come up with radical, practical and innovative solutions to achieve the stated outcomes. Set to commence concurrently, each lab will have 160 participants.

"On completion of the labs, an open house will be conducted to garner public participation in the GTP initiative. This will see the public, media, non-government organisations and members of the civil service invited to view results from the various labs.

Lab readers will be present to answer questions and gain feedback from attendees, he added.

Jala said that the roadmap will be followed by subsequent annual reports to update the public on delivery progress against announced plans and targets.

"It will be distributed as printed copies and downloadable on government websites," he said.

Both the open house and the 1Malaysia roadmap will be held and released at the beginning of next year, he said.

Fully operational next year

Koh who was also present at the press conference said Pemandu will adopt a "hybrid model manned by the brightest men and women from the civil service and private sector".

This will make it one of the first hybrid organisations created within the government, he added.

NONE "Recruitment for Pemandu has commenced, advertisements came out this morning. Pemandu is scheduled to be fully operational by the beginning of next year," Koh said.

Pemandu's objective is to oversee implementation and assess progress of the government transformation programme, facilitate as well as support delivery of both the N-KRAs and M-KRAs.

On another matter, Koh said he was undetered by mounting criticism hurled at him, stating that he will focus on his work first and take the appropriate actions when the time comes.

In response to his critics, he said "let them enjoy and have fun first whilst I wait for my time. I will not spoil their fun. I do not want to waste my time entertaining them".