By Geryl Ogilvy
KUCHING, Nov 28: Transparency and accountability must always be at the heart of the local governance integrity framework to ensure smooth delivery and services to the people.
Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department (Integrity and Ombudsman) Datuk Talib Zulpilip said it was important for staff and enforcement officers to uphold integrity to ensure that corruption and abuse in power would not take root within their organisations.
“Integrity must be inculcated in the local government that it becomes a habit for staff and officers to carry out their daily duties with utmost honesty and responsibility. When we have integrity, it will contribute to our service delivery and clean administration, which ensures confidence and satisfaction of our customers.
“An effective local government, delivering good, efficient services to the people would create a healthy living environment and a happy population,” he said at Kuching North City Hall (DBKU) Integrity and Innovation Day at its headquarters here today.
The event was held together with the council’s Occupational Safety and Health Day 2018.
Talib expressed satisfaction at DBKU’s effort to inculcate integrity and innovation within the organisation.
“I rarely hear any complaints about DBKU services. People are satisfied with their services, and this reflects the council’s commitment to constantly improve its services through the strengthening of its integrity and innovations.
“The fact that DBKU has won awards and recognition at both national and international levels should be an inspiration to other organisations and local authorities to improve their delivery,” he continued.
DBKU Datuk Bandar Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai said the council remained committed to strengthening integrity and innovative culture among its fraternity, while also emphasising on occupational health and safety.
“Constant innovation is critical to our ability to meet our customers’ needs. We are committed to conducting ourselves in a manner consistent with the highest standards of integrity, such as keeping our word, delivering our promises and acknowledging our mistakes.
“We are also committed to protecting the health and safety of our employees, contractors, customers and third parties, and safeguarding our services through continuous improvement, disaster recovery and crisis management planning,” he explained.
As a local authority, DBKU is not exempted from placing innovation as its benchmark to improve service delivery to the people.
Mastering the latest knowledge in line with global challenges would enable the organisation to generate creative ideas to meet the needs and demands of stakeholders and the local populace.
At the event, DBKU presented awards and recognition to its staff and officers. DBKU also received the MS ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Information Security Management System certification from Sirim.
Abang Abdul Wahap said the council was looking to restructure its organisation next year, creating new positions and trade-offs to create a more systematic and efficient administrative flow.
The move is to ensure more officers and staff of various grades and categories enjoy better career progression.
He added that DBKU would continue to develop online applications to improve productivity and provide more efficient services. — DayakDaily
