By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Oct 14: Dua Taruh Semong from Royal Malaysian Customs Department and Sassoku Tech from Kuching Division Land and Survey Department emerged as the winners of the Sarawak Chief Minister’s Innovation Award 2021 at the Sarawak Civil Service Innovation Convention Awards (SCSICA) 2021 today.
Dua Taruh Semong won the Federal Agency Category with its project titled ‘Difficulty in Identifying Content Determination of Goods in Containers’ while Sassoku Tech won the State Agency Category with its project titled ‘Methods of Determination and Monitoring of Soil Volume for License to Transfer Less Efficient Soil Materials’.
Each group bagged a cash prize worth RM10,000 and a trophy.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg presented the prizes to the winners at the award presentation ceremony held in conjunction with Sarawak Civil Service Innovation Month 2021 closing ceremony held at State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Complex.
A total of 89 groups from various government agencies and departments participated in the Innovation and Creative Circle (ICC) Convention from Oct 5 to 7.
The event also featured a newly introduced award named the Ureka Macri Award contributed by Malaysia Association of Creativity and Innovation (MACRi) which was secured by Swan group from Sibu District Education Office, bringing home a trophy, consultation service and innovative product patent worth RM8,000.
Other winners included Kanzen-Sei group from State Integrity and Ombudsman Unit (Union) which won the Digital Innovation Award while Sirius Prime group from Miri City Council (MCC) won the Social Innovation Award. Each group received a trophy and cash prize worth RM5,000.
The SCSICA Special Award on the other hand, was presented to Forest Department of Sarawak (FDS), bringing home a trophy and cash prize worth RM5,000.
Meanwhile, the Hybrid Innovation Award was bagged by Lands Tahai Q Hybrid Ta’rom group from Limbang Division Land and Survey Department and Limbang Division Public Works Department, bringing home a trophy and cash prize worth RM5,000.
Abang Johari also presented the Sarawak Innovation Officer Award 2021 to Dolhadi Marzuki who has been working in the Chief Minister’s Department since 2008, taking full responsibility in overseeing cultivating innovative and creative activities among civil servants as well as recognition of quality awards for government agencies in Sarawak.
At the event, Abang Johari also called on the Sarawak civil service to break away from what he termed to be “silo mentality” and avoid creating public value in isolation.
He pointed out that a classic criticism of the public sector and a key obstacle to innovation is the siloed approach to government, which also extends across sectors and into the public domain.
“Sometimes you will notice (the State agencies are of the view that) ‘this is the work of the federal agencies, not ours’. And the Federal agencies say, ‘this is the work of State agencies, not ours’.
“But the people say, both are the government administration. The people do not know whether it is the Federal or State, but they are representing the government. So in other words, we have to work together.
“For instance, (in the case of) the dilapidated schools. We have the fund so Ministry of Education (MOE) and the State government have to tackle (the issue of) dilapidated schools together.
“If you have problem with land matters, we (State government) come in. But the disbursement and the appointment of parties to develop or improve the schools, it is the common endeavour between both agencies,” he elaborated. — DayakDaily
