Customer service execs for government agencies

By VANES DEVINDRAN
vanes@thestar.com.my

KUCHING: The Home Ministry has directed its 10 agencies in Sarawak to have customer service executives who can provide a personal touch to clients by today.
Its secretary-general Datuk Seri Mahmood Adam said the move was to ensure the people received efficient service in line with the 1Malaysia slogan of “People First, Performance Now”.

“We need the executives to ensure the flow of service runs smoothly,” he told reporters after meeting the agencies here yesterday. Mahmood said the executives needed to have a thorough knowledge of the department’s operations and a warm personality. He also said that agencies opening counter services on weekends were still feasible since this served those in the interior and those who were tied up during working days.

Mahmood said the idea to open doors on weekends was the agencies’ own initiative, and not a ruling from the ministry. “It is a way of encouraging creativity and innovation to improve service,” he explained. Citing the National Registration Department, he said, it even deployed a mobile team into the interiors to deliver documents to ease the people’s burden.
It is learnt that up to Nov 9, 23,818 out of 43,000 applicants with birth certificates had received their MyKads and 6,276 out of 19,171 citizens had received their birth certificates.

On the waiver of the penalty for late registration for those living in the interiors, he said the matter was in the hands of Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.
“There are still some issues to be ironed out.”