As part of Public Service Week 2022, themed ‘Investing in Quality’, five new projects were launched to continue to change and improve the way the Public Service works and to make a positive difference to people’s lives. The projects are the Digital Transformation Hub, the Central Registry, servizz.gov Remote Workspace in Corradino, an IPS training centre in Corradino, and the new building which will house the Employee Support Programme.
At a press conference inaugurating these projects, Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar said that besides the launch of five projects which are important for the implementation of the new Public Service strategy, today’s event was aimed at helping people understand the Public Service’s ambitions to update itself and deliver a service of excellence.
Referring to the projects themselves, Mr Cutajar said that the Digital Transformation Hub will be a centre where, with the help of technology, each service will be considered and devised not just with particular attention to its design but also to how it will be delivered. In this way, each service, with the involvement of the clients themselves, is examined and analysed to ensure that it meets and even exceeds people’s expectations. A building in Floriana has already been identified to serve this purpose.
The Central Registry project will drastically change the way the Public Service works regarding document registration, in order to achieve a much higher level of efficiency. Mr Cutajar explained that there are currently 70 registries, with over 4 million documents. Each year 200,000 new documents are registered, with some 100,000 movements every month.
Through this project, all documents will be incorporated in an electronic system and all registry operations will be centralised in a single building, with uniform standards and procedures throughout the Public Service. These procedures are being carefully designed, starting from the arrival of a document until it is sent to the National Archives years later, as the case may be.
This project is coupled with the reduction of paper use in the Public Service. In this respect pilot projects have already been carried out, through which the necessary experience has been gained to enable the spread of the system throughout the Public Service.
Referring to the servizz.gov Remote Workspace and IPS training centre in Corradino, Mr Cutajar said that servizz.gov and the Institute for the Public Services (IPS) are twin entities that were set up at the forefront of the renewal of the Public Service just over five years ago. They will now have branches sharing the building in Corradino where the news conference was held. Half of the building will serve as a training centre for the IPS, with fully equipped lecture rooms. The other half will be run by servizz.gov to be transformed into a remote workspace addressing the needs of this side of the island. This will join the other 15 remote workspaces already up and running that are catering to the needs of about 1,000 public officers.
Regarding the Employee Support Programme (ESP) project, Mr Cutajar explained that the building currently hosting the Department of Information and the P&SD in Valletta is being expanded to also house the ESP. In this way, in a more central location, the Public Service will be providing counselling and support services to employees with difficulties in their personal life and at work. These services are provided by psychologists, counsellors, social workers, and career guidance personnel.
Mr Cutajar said that this project goes hand in hand with the People 360 programme, where people are not considered as a resource but as a key element in all its complexity. The programme focuses on bringing the best out of people and on pushing forward the talents that undoubtedly exist in an organisation as widespread as the Public Service.