Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan

Tan Sri Ismail AdamWithout execution, challenging goals are only as good as thepaper they are printed on. A delivery plan is needed and it must beexecuted to completion. To make his motto of ‘People First, PerformanceNow’ a reality, the Prime Minister has implemented a system of keyperformance indicators (KPIs) for all ministers.He has also specified national KPIs for lead ministers who have been maderesponsible for the six national key result areas – crime, corruption, publictransport, poverty, rural infrastructure and education. KPIs of secretaries-generaland department heads will automatically be aligned to their respective minister’sKPIs.For example, the reduction of street crime will be very much the KPI of theInspector-General of Police and that of theMinister of Home Affairs.Additionally, the Public Service Department This feedback on(PSD) assesses the performance of theseperformance deficit isdepartment heads through a further setof KPIs that measure the efficiency and especially useful for aneffectiveness of service delivery, quality of agency to determineconsultation, governance and accountabilityand leadership effectiveness.where it had gone offtrackand what it hasThe civil service leadership takes charge ofdelivering not only on its KPIs but also that to do to put its operationsof its ministers.back on course.KPIs by themselves are insufficient toassess performance. KPIs are yardsticksthat identify areas that a minister and theirdepartment head will want to know how well they have performed. Only then canthe public, minister and agency concerned know whether that agency has livedup to its commitments or whether it has underperformed in a particular area ofoperations.This feedback on performance deficit is especially useful for an agency to determinewhere it had gone off-track and what it has to do to put its operations back oncourse.It is in this spirit of accountability and feedback that the Prime Minister has specifiedperformance targets for each KPI of his ministers. These targets are for the shortterm— to be achieved by the year’s end; and for the medium-term — to beachieved over the next two to three years as, for example the reduction of street77