BY WONG SIEW YING

A new government department has been launched and it looks set to save the public sector millions of dollars.

Called Centre for Shared Services - Vital.org, it comes under the Finance Ministry.

The CSS aims to cut costs by pooling resources within the public sector to improve processes.

It will bring together hundreds of staff from 38 ministries and agencies.

The CSS aims to generate 15% cost savings or some $4m across the agencies from the second year of its operation.

Over 300 Human Resource and Finance officers had already crossed over from these agencies to CSS.

And the CSS is set to take in another 200 officers from 20 agencies next May.

Lim Hup Seng, Chief Executive of Vital.org, said: "They will continue serving their own agencies first. Over a period of time, we will transform that into functional specialisation, and then they no longer serve the agency, they will conduct certain functions across agencies. So this is a gradual process of change."

But will such deployment result in retrenchment?

Mr Lim said: "It's a matter of last resort. It's not an objective to retrench people but when they can't fit in......we will retrench them. But we hope to minimise this as much as possible."

The CSS was launched by Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, the Minister of State for Finance and Transport.

She said that the CSS must deliver faster, more convenient and customer-oriented services, by leveraging on technology and applying best practices across all agencies.

She said: "Currently what is happening is that it's fragmented. Each ministry is doing its own HR and finance. It means resources are spread out."

But the CSS brings together resources for better utilisation, she said. "Also you can do even more with the same resources."

For a start, the CSS will focus on HR and finance transactional services, but it is expected to expand its scope in the future so as to allow the various Ministries and agencies to focus their attention on their key priorities. - CNA/ir