AUALlrY MANAGEMENTIN LOCAL AUTHORITIES ADMINISTRATIONIN AUALIry MANAGEMENTIN LOCAL AUTHORITIES ADMINISTRATIONIN SARAWAK

Ahi Sorok

UniversitiMoloysiq Sorowd 2012 FirstPublication 2012 @AHISAROK

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Publishedin Malaysrab1 UN IVERSITI SARAT AI 94300 Kota Samarahan.Sarara. rfrtrl

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PerpustakaanNegara Malaysia t-:rqu-rg-r n -Pu bl icati on Data

Ahi Sarok,L957- Quality management in localauthorrfi* fifidzf r Sr-arak AhiSarok. lncludesindex Bibliography:p. 165 lsBN 978-967 -5527-43 -2 1. Totalquality managementin gorernrneq-Sns. 2. Localgovern ment-Sa rawak- 3. Benchmarking(Management)-9rawar r .ls., 658.562 CONTENTS

Lrstsof Abbreviations vii

I'eface ix

C.-acter1 Introduction I

Cl"apter 2 Localgovernment Administratron rn Srard l7

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&u*tqrpl; 176 lnde: .. r95 LISTOF ABBREVIATIONS

BDA DevelopmentAuthority BDC BauDistrict Council BPC BusinessProcess Reengineering CAPAM CommonwealthAssociation of PublicAdministration and Management cto ChiefExecutive Officer crilM Centrefor Modern Management csc ClericalSupport Group CUSTDR CustomerDriven DAC DevelopmentAdministration Circu lar DEXU DewanBondoroya Utara (CityHall of KuchingNorth). DO DistrictOfficer ETA ExploratoryFactor Analysis Eru EconomicPlanning Unit EXCO StateExecutive Committee eSrC Federal-State Liaison Committee GAO UnitedStates General Accounting Service @APR GoodAppraisal System @ril Governmentof Malaysia (-f Information Communication and Technology (U lmplementationand Coordination Unit trIAH lnstitut TodbiranAwon Negaro(National Institute of Public Administration) so lnternationaI Standa rds Organization (rr8 KuchingMunicipal Board ftr( KuchingMunicipal Council Gry KotaPadawan Recycle Centre ffi KuchingRural District Council |s8 KuchingSanitary Board -rf0 LocalAuthority Ordinance, 1996 .T LrnbangDistrict Council rtrc Vrn CrtVCouncil t*cPt' V ngjl of Errvrronmentand PublicHealth Sarawak rR.G tfins--f C r+ougngand LocalGqrernment rp ltrr.l o, O'fhce Procedure 5sc Lr;lirl*t Srr=rt r'nerneoonal Stardards Orgaruraoon E fmrl frnure C.qnc/ r H(.dbL.6JGarrr:rr :E :rrrhffiltaracamu* n nmh1F ; h5F ;lf Sffih tr iNHffi rl5 ffililfiflcD uf ffirfUhlfr-Srrtrun tqn ffi;f$Efclrourrr ':D *ItbErx QC QualityCouncil QCC QualityControl Cycle QDCMO QualityDivision in the ChiefMinister! ffice Qlc QuaI ity Im provement Conrmittee QMR Qua I ity M anagement Representative QUASSR QualityAssurance RDOL Residentand District O'ffic Linbary SCPQ SteeringCommittee on hodrdivity and Quality SBBS SistemBoyaran BilS*empt (One-StopPayment Centre) SDC SerianDistrict Council SERVQUAL ServiceQuality SLSCPQ SectionalLevel Steering CornitEes on Productivityand Quality SPSS StatisticalPackage for SocialScicre SSC SectionalSteering Commitbe SSG SeniorSupport Group STPLG StrategicQua I ity Planning SUIMMP Successfullmplementation of A*y Management SWT SectionalWork Team TMWK Teamwork TMSPT TopManagement Support TQM TotalQua lity Management TRREC Trainingand Recognition Preface

ttrel governments throughout the world are experiencing dramatic changes.Local authoritiesare moving away from traditional methods of administrationto those which are quality conscious,in which emphasis 6 placed on providing quality servicesand trying to meet customers' safisfaction.Efficiency of service deliveries,continual improvement of processes,team work approach, and process-drivenactivities seem to be the order of the day. To achieve all these, local authorities have rnplemented quality managementsystems such as implementingTotal Qrality Management(TQM), and the MS lso 9000 standards,while dhers have institutionalisedquality assurancemechanisms and business grocessre-engineering in theirorganizations.

The purposeof this book is to tracethe historyof localgovernment administrationin Sarawak.The emergenceof local governmentunits in Sarawakcan be traced back during the era of the White Rajahs.Local torrernmentadministration became more apparentafter the formation of the federationof Malaysiain 1963. With the implementationof Quality ManagementSystems appropriate structures were createdwithin the local authoritiesto overseeas well as to reviewthe implementationof quality managementfrom time to time.

It alsodiscusses the processof implementingquality management in localgovernment administration. lt alsogauges the process,implementation and customerperceptions of quality managementin local administration rn Sarawak.Specifically, this book focuseson the implementationof Total QualityManagement and MS ISO9000 at four localauthorities in Sarawak, namely, Dewan BandarayaKuching Utara (DBKU),Padawan Municipal Council(PMC), Council (SDC) and Bau DistrictCouncil (BDC).

Inevitably,I am indebtedto many individualsand institutionswho havecontributed towards the successof this publication.As suchI wish to expressmy sincereappreciation and gratitudeto Assoc.Prof. Dr. Halimah Awang of the Department AdministrativeStudies and Politics,Facutty of Economicsand PublicAdministration, University Malaya for her full support and encouragement,in the originaldevelopment and thorough reviewof this book.

At UniversitiMalaysia Sarawak, I wish to extend my sincerethanks to the former Vice Chancellor,Professor Datuk Dr Abdul RashidAbdullah, and the Senateincluding the Vice Chancellor,Professor Dr KhairuddinAb Hamid.I wish to thank ProfessorDr PeterSongan, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Researchand Innovation,UNIMAS for his kind adviceand encouragement. the former At the Facultyof Socialscience, I wish to extend my thanksto goesto the Dean,professor OiOi1nUab NgidinB, mY sincere appreciatio.n also pi"i"nt Dean,Professor Dr Sfencei EmpadileS.anggin, their encouragement and assistanceduring the courseof writingthis book. the Thanksare also given to my dear colleagueDr JeniriAmir, of piogim-me, Univeisiti MalaysiaSarawak. Thanks for the Communication - tri"nAtf'tipand the tiire we haveshared together sohpok!'

I wishalso to takethis opportunltyto extend my warmest appreciation Poros to all the CEOs-ofifr" local councils,Srticularty Yr-Peter-Ambrose gidriet council, of serian District-Vti council, Mr Bain of Bau District Municipal Vf1. Hiil.iy fvfu[it, Stratriittn and Ms tta Ung of -Padawan Corniii,bnJ riJtryTuan Haji onn A6ullah,Ms RamonaAriffin, Mr PeterMartin, ano rvrajor Jain sumor of theotY councilof KuchingNorth for theircooperation and kindness.

At home, I wish to extend my deepest gratitude to afl my b.rothers to school' in and sisters.Some seem to question'my *hy I keepbn goilg. back dedicatethis ipii" of havinf iornpf"ted Diplomi i wish to !l 1gg3- my five lovely successstory or *in" with my belovedwifie, lanit Ahim and Gillen children:Jassmine Joanne, Jesiica JanneL Gerrald Gilles,Gerraint time | and JacintaJolene. Your numerous long distance calls every. .am had to endure i*iy ln Kualafurprr, broke the silenceand lonelinessI whileresearching for mYPhD. from similarly,my gratitudealso goestg nwro oto britongfriendsboth appreciation Kuchingand fuSta Limpur. In this-regqd,lirt$h to extend my government of to Willie, Bob, Thomas, Michael and-Tim- LasilV,the State (BBS)in Sarawakwho hai ki"Jry conferred me the B€nt*a BintangSarawak in Malaysia'The conjunctionwith tne 4O'nanniversary of-hf independence inspires iont"ir"nt ofiheges on the occasionof the Dbmond anniversary me further to a greaterheight in my enderyour'

And of course, none of the individtnls and institutions mentioned aboveare responsibleiot tny of the weaknessesin this book'

Ahi Sarok Kota Samarahan C-AJJfi MANAGEMENTIN LOCATAUTHORITIES ADMINISTRATION IN SARAWAK

INTRODUCTION

Qrafity managementis an importanttool for the implementationof public :rtor reform in many advancedcountries. Administrative reforms which hare taken place include quality management, privatisation,business process re-engineeringand benchmarking(Caiden, 1991; Muhammed Rais, 1999). While quality managementhas its origin in the private :€ctor, it has been successfullyimplemented in the publicsector in many darcloped countriesin Western Europe,as well as the United Statesand Ja9an.Quality management was first adopted in the United Statesin 1988.

Qualitymanagement includes many management buzz-words such es TotalQuality Management (TQM), statistical process control , zerodefect programme, quality function deployment, quality policy development, benchmarking,Kaizen, or continuousimprovement, as adopted in Japan, $e ISO 9000 series of standards,and lately the implementationof 5u Sigma.In sum, quality managementrefers to all quality initiatives undertakenby any organisationfor the purposeof providinghigh quality and efficientservices, and is aimed at meeting customer needs.In other rords, customersare satisfied by provision of service quality. Because of this, organisationsneed to implementquality managementinitiatives.

Of all the conceptsabove, TQM and ISO9000 becamevery popular amongst public and privatesector organisationsin Malaysiain the 199Os. Consequently,there havebeen countless efforts to reform the publicsector includinglocal government administration by implementingTQM and MS ISO m qualitymanagement standards. TQM reformsput a lot of emphasison dte continuousimprovement of processes,strategic quality planning team work, support, responsivenessto customersthrough cooperation,training and recognitionand qualityassurance. Public managers face the chalhnges of trylng to accommodatethese expectations,each of wtrichis beingpursued under the rubric of reform (Wangrahamet al. 1998: 20O).In this era of QUALITYMANAGEMENT IN LOCALAUTHORITIES ADMINISTRATION IN SARAWAK information comm u n ication and technology(lgf), government organ isations are experiencingdramatic changeand some have implementedbusiness processre-engineeri ng.

lf quality management is to be srrressful, the essential factor that must be present is strategicquahty planning which must be effective and widespread. Strategic quality plandlg indudes the charting of the organisation'sgrandiose vision, quality OieOves and identify the activities that need to be improved. Top manatemeot must take the lead in the formulation of the strategicvisions, quafity oaFArues and the activitiesthat needto be improved(Edwardson et al. 199l51l.Ihb strategicvision must be competentlycommunicated throughout $e oqmbation.

However, sometimes manage6 -r3 tood talkers but poor communicatorsand usefulinformation are td drannelledproperly in the organisation.The employees must see the rceJts of their activities and the improvements which they have carried qrt. Cluality policies need to be constantlyencouraged through actiye ortur*ztion in the team. But, Gaster(1995:29) argues that qualitypoladcsd b be very top down, both 'guru's in the privateand publicsector, whether ban of fte maxim'that top managementshould themselves be ouribd or becausethis is how they havealways done things.

Another important aspectof sfiaft.SEfty planningis to developa processof continuousquality improrrenrer*s-d fie need to use a selection of quality managementtools and teclrniqr, Aording to Dale (199a:33) without the effectiveemployment of toob rd rcltniques it will be difficult to solve problems.The tools and tedrniqs $ouH.be used to facilitate improvementand be integratedinto the ruiip operationsof the business. Organisationneeds to developa rouE mT for the tools and techniques whichit intendsto usein implementilg6*;rEnagement. The useof tools and techniques helps get the proosssof inpronement started. Employees usingthem feel involvedand that $€y re makinga contribution;quality awarenessis enhanced;and behaviqr ad ailitude changesstart to happen.

Im prove m e nt of consunlerservi-s and serviceq uaI ity is an oth er way that governmentstry to be popularand tilre responsive(Gaster, 1995: 55). r- -. r.Ir\AGivE\T ]'- IN LOCAL AUIHORITIESADMINISTRATION IN SARAWAK

rcttas to servicesthrough single access points, often calledthe One-Stop-Shop, ras trst rnifiatedin the UnitedKingdom, and hasnow reachedother parts of :na tortd. Hence,in Malaysia,we havewitnessed the creationof the One-Stop- D1'rvrq61{entresestablished in some public sector agencies, particularlythose $n(rc'5 which providepublic utility services. In Malaysia,local authorities \&€ becomeone of the leadingagencies providing such services because :h?5€tocal authorities are easily accessible to the stakeholders and customers.

Davisonand Grieves(1996: 34) look at why localgovernments are rt'en to embark on the quality managementjourney. They suggestthat s: authoritieshave traditionallybeen responsiveto the needsof their ffiJe4 throughthe processof democraticaccountability. This is centredon !-\€ grs6ise that centralgovernment cannot directly exercise control over lrr"(PS providedby the localauthorities in an effectiveway. Localauthorities rQ t€en to havethree principalfunctions: protection of the environment ft public health,social services, and conveniences(parks, recreation and c€d4qttenof refuse).These functional services emerged because the citizen nl":s localauthorities to be more accountableand transparent.Thus local 3&e'.ments haveshown great interest in qualitymanagement, especially in l€-r'{€ delivery.

Martin (2002: 302) argues that the aim of modernisinglocal ftrie'nment isto improvelocal services, enhance community governance, and a !3 tTreasepublic confidence in the institutionsof localgovernment. Some of n rte rev elementsof thisagenda, are attempts to persuadeauthorities to make !t"?a:eruse of the markets,the encouragementof strategicmanagement ft :fii''ques, anda relianceon externalmonitoring, and a relianceon the New e F.o c Management(NpM).

Therehas been a lot of emphasison enhancingquality, efficiency, crec:r eness,accou nta bi I ity and productivity worl dwid e (Ahmad Ka ma rudd in AE-' Rashid,1999; Keen & scase,1998; Bell & Grover,1994; osborne & Greo'er"1993). In the pastthe term "administrativereform" had been coined E Seq'onstratethis effort.Caiden (1991) described administrative reform as R ro.icementof systematicimprovement in the publicsector operational gt#3r*ances. Sincethe early 1980sto the beginningof the 199Os,a {frg'ci :a ted the "new managerialism"was coinedto explainthe pursuit QUALITYMANAGEMENT IN LOCALAUIHORITIES ADMINISTRATION IN SARAWAK of the government in enhancingproductivity, efficiencyand effectiveness and accountabilityin the public sector (Caiden,t991; Keen& Scase,1998; Castle,1996). Lately, the term reengineeringhas been usedto describethis phenomenon(Muhammad Rais, 199!l).

Keenand Scase(1-998) give three reasonswhy local government in the United Kingdomembraced new manaprialism.The centralgovernment has subjected local authorities to increairyty stringent controls over the level and patterns of their expenditure.9ldr constraints have compelled local authorities to look for ways to improve eficiency and effectiveness of their managementand servicedeliyery sptems. Apart from that, local government has been subjectedto the establstrmentof market conditions through transferringof serviceor assetsto priwte ownership,encouraging competitive tendering of services,or creatilg htemal markets.There has also been a move towardsthe developnnct of a nrblic serviceorientation focusingon the public as clients,and custorrrs and also there is a move awayfrom supply-ledto demand-ledserviprfich b no longerdomi'nated by professionalproviders but more responsiveb dE needsof those they serve.

Since the beginningof the 19!X)s,the pr$lic sector in the United Kingdom has esta bl ished the Citizens'Charter (keeman-Bel l & Grove r, 1993). The Charterbasically requires local authorities b adopt a number of public serviceprinciples that clientsare entitledto qect. Theseinclude courteous and efficientservices from publicorganisatirr. TheGtizens' Charter includes entitlementsto"standards of serviceprovbin, rnore involvementin decision making,information provisions and clearfyspedfied complaint procedures.

In the United States,the term -reintrcntit€ government" was used to describethe concertedeffort undertakento enrpowerthe state and local governments.Under the National PerforrranceReview, the Clinton-Gore administrationdevised a numberof stepsaimed at enhancingthe capacityof authorities'functions in the states, and counties(Osborne & Gaebler, 1993). Hambleton(1996: 96) suggeststhat local authoritieshave been shiftingtheir traditionalroles from concentntionon directprovision of public servicestowards other outward lookingattributes such as greater efficiency that helpshape the localand economicenvironment of the communitythey serve.He goes on to arguethat rather than working within the realm of 3-r*-' t.'-r\AGEMENTlN LOCALAUTHORITIES ADMINISTRATION lN SARAWAK

* FOfc sector, local authorities are increasinglyworking across the herles of the public,private and the voluntarysectors. ln view of the atstrant roles played by local government, local authorities have to Scvnent qualityinitiatives with the view to meet the diversedemands of cuners or citizensthat requiretheir services. tn t In Malaysia, efforts to embrace administrative reform, new the rn|fenalism andthe questsfor qualitymanagement and quality assurance lln ahraysbeen an on-goingprocess initiated by the government.The role ss J 9.6frc serviceand administrationover the yearshas changed significantly. al llt changeis in linewith the country'seconomic growth andthe fast paceof ns *rc{opment (Gopalakrishnan,2oo2; Muhammad Rais, 1999; rsmail salleh, pgrl Thechange is requiredto enablethe publicsector agencies to provide has cltoent servicedelivery to stakeholdersand meet customers'satisfaction. n rke" the mission,objectives, and functionsof the publicservice have in bct undergonevarious degrees of reform, especiallyunder the explicit tU rmplicitinfluences of publicpolicies, development strategies and other rmatrves.

In Malaysia,these reformstook placein three distinctivephases. 3). F !dy, the immediatepost-independent period in the 1960sand 1970s, which ilic cq.rrred developmentadministration and institutionbuilding (Esman, L972). Sccondly,the period from 1980s to the early 1990s necessitatedthe stsolidation and upgradingof the governmentmachinery. Finally, the fftod from the 1990sto the presenthas placedemphasis on efficiency, c{fectrveness,providing quality services, and greatertransparency in public lEctor managementin Malaysia(Ahmad Sarji, 1991,a; and Gopalakrishnan, lm2)

The successof the developmentprogrammes initiated by the Smrnment hasto a significantextent been due to the efficientfunctioning of the economicsystem. More importantly,however, the functioningof ttle country'spublic administrationsystem, including the roles played Di tocal government,has also played a part in the countr/s success. QUALITYMANAGEMENT IN LOCALAUTHORITIES ADMINISTRATION IN SARAWAK

Efforts to improve and promote efficiencyin public sector managementas well as localgovernment administration throughout the country have been initiatedsince independence.All these efforts were directedat increasingoutput aswell as providingefficient service deliveries to the publicwhich the administrationpurported to serveuntiringly. Various programmesand activitieswere introducedin the publicsector to enhance quality and productivity.In the 198Os,especially after the then Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamadtook office,various reform efforts were introduced, namely,the CivilService Core Principles which were introducedin 1979,The CivilService Code of Ethicsin 1980,the NameTags in 1981, the LookEast Policyin L982,the CleanEfficiently and TrustworthyConcept in 1982,the PunchClock System in 1982, andthe Leadershipby Exampleand Inculcation of lslamicValues in 1983 (AhmadSarji, 1991b; and AhmadAtory, 1995).

Onthe otherhand, the LocalGovernment Act of 1976was formulated and passedby the MalaysianParliament wrth the aim of reforming the localgovernment agencies to givegreater autonomy and to empower local councils.The Act alsoaimed to stream-linethe administrationto copewith the fastpace of developmentconfronting the country(Ahmad Atory, 1991).

The recessionof L983witnessed the establishmentof the Panelon Administrativelmprovement to the CivilService (Ahmad Sarji, 1991a). The objectiveof thispanelwas to find waysand means of improvingthe administrative system of the public serviceand for which suitableprogrammes were implemented.The establishment of the Panelmeant that effortsto improve efficiencyand effectivenessin the publicsector took greatermomentum.

At the Federallevel, quality and productivitymanagement and improvementprogrammes were introducedin the publicsector as earlyas L992(Ahmad Sarji, 1991b; Nurseha, 1997). The programmesinclude Quality and ProductivityManagement, Innovation in the PublicService, Counter Servicein GovernmentDepartments, Efforts Towards Streamlining Regulations and Procedures:lmplementation Action Pursuantto the Study of The Systemof Licensingand PermitsPertaining to Businessand Investment and lmprovementof Systemsand Work Proceduresand the Use of Modern Equipmentin the PublicSector. Other programmesimplemented were lncreasingthe Use of InformationTechnology, The Assimilation 3-I*-' V.^\AG€lrrEt.rtIN LOCALAUTHORITIES ADMINISTRATION IN SARAWAK d God Valuesand the Practiceof PositiveWork Ethicsin the CivilService, torc Systemof Planningand lmplementationof DevelopmentProjects, f mpFrnentation of the MalaysianIncorporated policy.

|Vrththe implementationof all the programmesmentioned above, llr" hav€been a lot of emphasison improvingthe qualityand productivity - rctrtes provided by the public sector agencies. Theseadministrative *rnt agendaswere supposedto be implementedthroughout the public GE at all the three levelsof government:federal, state,and local.These *trn agendaare containedin the DevelopmentAdministration Circulars pr(l asued by the then Chief Secretaryto the Government,Tan Sri lFud 9rji Bin Abdul Hamid.These Development Administration circulars #rud" Guidelineson Productivitylmprovement in the PublicService, 1989, hrnes on QualityControl Circles in the PublicService, L99L, Guidelines r TotalQuality Management in the PublicService, L992, and Guidelines for I nglementation of MS ISO9000 in the Civil Service,1995.

The purposeof all thesecirculars was to provideclear guidelines Gete with examplesin variousareas of reform effortsin the CivilService pnd Sarji,1991a; and Nurseha,1997). Thesecirculars are supposedto tqrde detailedguidelines to all governmentagencies to ensure uniformity 5 a structuredapproach in planning and implementingthe quality fqement programmesin all publicsector agencies in Malaysia.Beside lr. $es€ circulars are also the main sourceof referenceto assistpublic :cu agenciesin evaluatingtheir performancesand taking necessary follow- t -Dons as well as continuouslyenhancing their quality improvement frrts. All these initiativesindicate that the governmenthas made a more Ctend effort to improve public sector efficiencyby providing better Grr.e deliveriesto the customersand stakeholders.

In 1985, the government introduced yet another set of quality tf'ou€'|ment programmes in the Civil Service.The objectives of these tqtr-Ilmes areto enhancethe qualityof servicedelivery to customersand I).uease the productivityof the CivilService (Abdul Rahman 1995; Ahmad Fv. 1995;Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid,1998; and MuhammadRais, 1999). b" Cr.fty rnanagementprogrammes are Mantral of Ofhce Proceduresand QUALITYMANAGEMENT IN LOCALAUTHORIIIES ADMINISTRATION IN SARAWAK

DeskFiles, lmprovement in the Qualityof CounterServices, Quality Control Circles(QCC1, Micro AccountingSystem, and Clients'Charter.

With the introductionof the abovequality management programmes at the federal level, we have seen that more concerted efforts had been taken by the government to bring gireaterefhciency and effectiveness in the public sector particularlyin improvingthe deliverysystems. In view of the importance of efficiency and effectivenessin the public sector, the governmentof Malaysia issued the DevelopmentAdministration Circular (DAC)No. 1 of L992urging all publicsector agencies throughout the nationto adopt and implementTQM in the respsctiy€organisations. The relationship betweenthe variousDACs and qualitymanagement is shown in Appendixl. Theimplementation of TQM isseen as a tool to enhanceproductivity where the publicsector will be ableto providetheir servicesefficiently and are able to satisfy the customers' needs (Ahmad Sarii f996; Nurseha,L997; Safiee 2000; Sharifah,2001). With the implementatirn of TQM in the country's publicadministration, the governmentis seennot onlyto havebecome more qualityconscious, but is alsokeen to purcuecontinuous improvement.

An important milestone in quality managementin the Malaysian PublicService is the adoptionof ISO90(n. h this regard,the Development 'Guidelines AdministrationCircular No. 2 of 1996 on for lmplementing MS ISO9000 in the CivilService, was assuedby the ChiefSecretary to the Government.The circularwas sentto the SecretaryGenerals of Ministries, Heads of Federal Departments,Heads of Heral Statutory Bodies,the respectiveState Secretaries, and LocalGovernmentAuthorities (GOM, 1996).

Theobjective of the circularwas to erglainand provideclear guidance on the implementationof the MS ISO9(Xn Sbndard in the CivilService. The implementation of MSO ISO 9000 requires organisationsto identify their customers'needs and to plan and control the processesthat have to be implementedto fulfilthose needs.

The seriousnesson the part of the government in the adoption of MS ISO9000 in the CivilService can be seen in the speechmade by the former PrimeMinister, Tun Dr. MahathirMohamad. Ahmad Sarji (1996a: 293) quoted the speechmade at the CommonwealthAssociation for Public Administrationand ManagementBiennial Conference in Malta on 22 April 3- ^*-' locat nuTnoRmEs "'-lslG€vEu:'rN nDutrutsrRnloNtru snRnwer ltf,. wfiereTun Dr. Mahathirsuccinctly outlined the rationalefor adopting * 60 90m standardsin the Civilservice.In hisspeech Tun Dr Mahathirsaid: '*(bratrty too has becomea much sought-aftertarget. lf goods produced ld meet certain quality standard,surely services,Government services r(trdd, mustachieve a certaindegree of quality.ISO 9000 should not be for L frtories of the privatesector alone. Government administration must *o Ytefor the covetedaward. A good Governmentadministration cannot h of a lower qualitythan its clients- largelythe privatesector. lt must orplement the privatesector fully if it is going to servethe country and onribrrte towardsits growth and well-beingof the people...,, (Ahmad sarji; !l!l6a:293).

It hasbeen argued that the introductionof thesequality management Flrammes hasfurther improvedthe capabilitiesof governmentagencies r prodding quality servicesto the customers(Ahmad Sarji, 1993). The rd€rnentation of all these programmeshave laid a strong foundation b daeloping a qualitymanagement system in the CivilService. Based on lt abovescenario, there has been a continuouseffort to enhancequality rylagement in the Malaysianpublic sector. However, there seemsto be little ;Erest amongstlocal scholars in studyingthe impactof the implementation rU adoptionof TQM and MSOISO 9000 among local government agencies in rEey:ia. In view of sucha phenomenon,book will focuson the impactand rplications of implementingTeM and MSO ISO9O0O in tocalgovernment dninistration in the Stateof Sarawak.

In the UnitedKingdom, Keen and Scase (1998: L) observedthat local fD€rnment hasexperienced an unprecedentedrate of changeand the local pt€rnment has embarkedon a new managerialism.According to them bcal governmenthas moved from a more bureaucraticand professionally &ninated administratorto a more flexible,customer oriented private stle d senriceprovisions.

However, Keen and Scasepointed out that there has been little cfrort to find out the extent to which this presumption has been put into fzctice. Nonetheless,there is evidencesuggesting that localgovernment is ttpning forwardto adoptthe new managerialism,and thoseadopting quality truna8ementprinciples are the senior management.The majority of locat r.nhorities today are unableto meet adequatelythe increasingdemands QUALITYMANAGEMENT IN LOCALAUTHORITIES ADMINISTRATION IN SARAWAK of the growing population,leading possibly to certain segmentsof society being marginalisedor alienated.Therefore, a key area for further quality improvementis the effort to link servicequality with customers'satisfcation. This implies that local authoritiesneed to recognizeand organizetheir servicesaccording to different clienteleneeds (Ahmad Kamaruddin,1999: 158).Ahmad Kamaruddinfurther suggestsdecentralisation of their services to meet the diversedemands of the customers.

TQM had been adopted and impbmented in most public sector organisationsin Malaysiavia DevelopmentAdministration Circular (DAC) No. 1-.in 1992.However, ISO 9000 was implernentedthroughout the publicsector agenciesvia DACNo. 2 of L996whicfr was bg.ed by tre then ChiefSecretary of the Government,Tan Sri Dato' SeriAtrnrad Sni 8lh Abdul Hamid(GOM, L996). As a resultof the issuancesof thesetrno OACS,TAM and MS ISO9000 havebeen adopted by DBKU,PMC and some smaller lcl arrthoritiesin Sarawak.Among the DistrictCouncils in Sarawak,Serian Disfria @uncil (SDC)and BauDistrict Council(BDC) were amongthe few localautluities whichhave implemented the TQM and adoptedthe MS ISO9OO0 primldes in their administration.lt hasbeen more than 10 yearssince the TQM,and eightyears since the MS ISO 9000were implementedin the localBov€rrrsft administrationin Sarawak. Throughoutthe country,there hasbeen litde ilempt to evaluatethe impact of these programmes be it in the private sector or in the public sector.

Basically,ISO 9000 is a nry nrma3ernent tool which all the three levels of government in Malaysiatry to embrace. Accordingto Gopalakrishnan(20021the Federal Goyerrrrent tries to embraceand adopt MS ISO9000 in identifyingtheir weaknesresand helpingthem to take the next step forward in the challengingprmess of continuousimprovement.

lssuesthat are commonto rnostpt$mc sector organizations, whether they are at the federal,state or local leyel indude slacknessin the public sector, low productivityand lack of urymcy and providingpoor services. Publicsector agenciesare facingthe fiollowingproblems: low productivity, poor quality of service, staff ard empbyee management conflicts, and erosionof clientor customeror publicconfidence (Ahmad Sarji, 1996b; Wan AbdulWahab Abdullah ,2O04-l. &&-. v.r.\r$_r,,$- i\ .OCAL AUTHORffTESADtvilNtSTRnIOt\ i|\ SaRtnl<

h llela)6ia, the slacknessin the publicsector can be seen through t rylser of complaintsreported against all the Ministriesas well as the CrYernmentas shown in Table 1.1. From the table the largestgroup Jo-rptarnts was delaysand no action taken by the ministriesconcerned. L qft€st numberof complaintsagainst the ministrieswas 2,272 cases, rFrtled in 2002,while for the StateDepartment the numberof complaints ;r? 1.180 casesin the same year. simirarry,the highest number of qlarnts on delaysand no actionmade againstthe Ministrieswas recorded a 2@ wherethis accountedfor about 60 percentof the total complaints, rt 54 5 percentwas recordedfor the State Departmentin the sameyear. ll* slacknessin providingquality serviceswas relativelylow, the highest rwdd againstthe ministrieswere 5.7percent in 2002as compared to 7.3 Frcent againstthe StateDepartments in the sameyear.

f-b 1.1:The Numberand Types of ComplaintsAgainst Ministries and State Departmentfrom 2000-2003. \r3 cf complaints ____ \4ilistriet(Zg) Stateo@ 2000 2007 2002 2003 2000@ Iria and no 59.4 53.4 50.2 FnS 52.1 54.5 48.4 40.2 47.7 .,'tr-5; actions 18.0 19.9 17.6 12.7 13.6 I4J 16.0 10.9 t a-olic 3.0 2.2 lftF.-t'es 4.5 4.6 8.4 6.2 10.4 9.8 llto4slrentatiOn ral,]€sses 0.8 0.1 0.8 0.5 0.5 0.0 0.5 0.3 lg.s€ of power 1.4 2.7 1.6 2.8 0.8 1.3 0.8 3.4 Ssccoduct 3.1 3.4 5.0 5.1 2.1 1.4 14 1.2 3,ttrrr to follow 2.7 L.4 !rueoures 2.7 2.4 3.3 2.0 28 1.8 lxr 4.8 Qfi'€rcement 8.5 9.0 6.8 14.3 18.5 18 1 15.2 tiixrness in Srarding quality o.7 5.7 5.6 0.1 4.6 7.3 5.1 l?-e'{eS *6f son 6.1 4.2 2.9 7.4 2.4 -Ga 3.0 2 6 3.6 1,869 !,744 2,272 2.034 826 805 II 80 1l55 la.rre. Wan AbdulWahab Abdullah (20O4:175&!76]r

Localgovernments played their part in providingservices not only !c the publicat the grassrootslevel but alsoto other governmentagencies lnd the privatesector in bringingabout development programmes to areas of,communities under their jurisdiction.The reportgathered by the public CcmplaintBureau (PCB) during their CircuitProgramme in 1994,indicated :iat membersof the public were not satisfiedwith the servicesprovided

Lt QUALITYMANAGEMENT IN LOCALAUIHOR]TIES ADMINISTRATION IN SARAWAK by some localauthorities in Malaysia.Table1.2 showsthat there were 461 complaintsmade againstthe local authoritiesduring the 1994 PCBCircuit Programmethroughout Malaysia.Out of the 461 complaints,only 2O8 complaintsor 45.L2percent had been resolvedamicably by the authorities concerned, 192 were substantiatedand the remainingcomplaints were underinvestigation by the PCB.

Table 1.2: Total Number of Complahts tod3pd Against Local Authorities in Malaysia during the FCBCbcdt Prqramme in 1994 Total Under state - Total Resohed 9.tstantiated Recerveo Investigation Johore 27 22 L4 5 Kedah 32 13 13 19 Kelantan 3 2 1 L 3 2 1 L NegeriSembilan 51 30 19 2L 53 22 1!) 31 L40 72 38 38 Penang 59 19 7 40 Perlis Sarawak 4 4 103 11 76 LL 16 11 1 5 Total 192 t72 Source;Public Complaint Bureau Annual Report 199f

From the table it is evident fiat nrembersof the public were not satisfiedwith the servicesrendered bV tte local authorities.The complaints were about various problems such as failure on the part of the local authorities to enforce certain provisinrs d the law and/or regulations, operationsof illegalfactories, illegalextemims, failureto replyto complaint letters,delays in actingon complaints,poor garbagecollection, rude conduct of enforcementofficers, failure to act on oqnplaints suchas noise pollution, obnoxioussmells, illegal businesses as nrell as applicationsfor trade licences.

The discussionabove showsthat quality managementregime is not somethingnew in publicsector management in this part of the world. lt has evolvedmore than a decadeago and it is still on-going.As localgovernments

T2 ;! r die 6on, line in terms of servicedelivery, they are increasinglyfaced S t{rcfichoices especially in the faceof fallingrevenues and risingcost of Fftbns (AhmadKamaruddin, 1999: 154).

Some local authoritiesin Sarawakare keenly pursuingquatity St*ement and continuousimprovement through the implementation J TQil and ISO9000. In someinstances these local authorities have been Icldnd with the MS lS0 9000 certification.Local authorities have sent k oficials to attendcourses and/or workshop on the implementationof lfi€ qualitymanagement programmes. ln addition,large amounts of public btdng andtime havebeen spent by agenciesto implementthe programmes. lheler, not much is known on the specificdetails pertaining to planning ;f implementationof all these programmesat these local authorities. Corsequently,it is difficult,if not cumbersometo gaugewhat are the factors ffi contributeto the successor failureof suchprogrammes.

13 QUALITYMANAGEMENT IN LOCALAUTHORITIES ADMINISTRATION IN SARAWAK

SuccessfulQuality Management lmplementation

Ahmad Sarji(1998) and Safiee (2000)stress that there are sevenmaJor factorswhich influencethe successfulimplementation of TeM and MS ISO 9000in an organisationas described in Figure1.1.

1. Top Management Support . Establishing quality policy . Establishing quality management structure . Total staffparticipation . CommunicationQualitylnforrnation . Managing change process . Quality day

2. Strategic Quality Planning . Charting organizational vision . Charting quality objectives . Identify improvement activities

3. Customer Priority ' Identi$r the customers . Identifu customers' needs . Translate customers' needsto quality output . Establish quality output process l. . Implement the process Quality services 2. Efficiencyincrease 3. Teamwork prevails 4. Training and Recognition 4. Better performance . Establish training master plan Areb 5. Job satisfaction . Outline the objectives and training f,lrrrSrfrl 6. Increasedloyalty needs 7. Customerssatisfaction . Acknowledge staff for excellence service 8. Quality interest 9. Continuousimprovement

7. Quality Assurance . Systematicaction plan to check defects and error

Fig. 1.1: Factors of Successfullmplementation of euality Managementand lts Benefits Intheory the factorswhich most writers believed influence successful implementationof quality managementare: top managementsupport, 'driven strategicquality planning, customers programmes,recognition and training,team work, performance appraisal and qualityassurance. AII these factorsinfluence the smoothimplementation of TQM.

t4 C-,.T*.. V'rrIG;-VE.*T rN LOCO|-AUTHORMES ADMINISTRANON IN SARAWA( hrf S*isfaction

t rrvres andfacilities whichare commonly provided by the localauthority n tsre one-stopcounter service,public library,waste managementand collection,market, lh sportand recreationfacilities, environmental and Freahh,councifs recycring ;r( programme,street creaning, enforcement of ml by laws, approvalsof licencesand developmentand buildingplans. t csrceptualframework of externalcustomers' perceptions of the local Ignes' seryicesis shownin Figure 1.2.

{$t Management fhiues ServiceProviders Localauthoritiesservices External

i;e Ll!: Framework for External Customers' Perceptionsof Local Authority services

From Figure L.2 above, the external customersof the local rdiorities are supposedto be satisfiedwith the provisionof services by rpvided the local authoritiesafter they have successfultyadopted lhe qu3|;ty managementinitiatives such as fulfillingthe Client,sCharter, -opfion TQMand MS lso 9ooo,and also by acquiring up-to date machineries trdt as trucksand ICTpackages to deliverservices to externatcustomers. Aoan from the above,service providers and front-line staff, too, are assumed professionally b be trainedto enablethem to deliverthe servicesprovided

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