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Speech by SCS at 10 Outstanding Drivers Award Presentation Ceremony

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Following is the speech by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Joseph W P Wong, at the 10 Outstanding Drivers Award Presentation Ceremony organized by the Government Land Transport Agency today (May 9):

Mr Walker (Government Land Transport Administrator), Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honoured to be present at today's Outstanding Drivers Award Presentation Ceremony organized by the Government Land Transport Agency.

Civil servants, on the frontline or in the backoffice, co-ordinate their efforts in providing multifarious quality services to the public everyday. Faced with the rising expectations of the community, the Government has in recent years been actively promoting a customer-oriented service culture among civil servants at all ranks, and striving to meet clients' aspirations in service attitude, efficiency and quality.

For example, through the promulgation of performance pledges, departments have taken continuous efforts to enhance their services. To date, more than 60 departments have announced their performance pledges, spelling out the level of service that customers may expect. Some of them have set up customer liaison groups to collect clients' views. To further inculcate the service culture, an annual Civil Service Customer Service Excellence Award Scheme has been launched since 1999. This year, we have for the first time involved the public in the voting process to select the departments which they consider are providing the best customer service. Besides, individual departments have also been organising staff motivation schemes to award staff who achieve outstanding performance, and to encourage them to do even better in serving the community. I am glad to see that after years of hard work, we have seen significant improvements in government services, both in terms of quality and efficiency. Contribution by civil servants in this respect should be commended.

The launching of the Ten Outstanding Drivers Award by the Government Land Transport Agency to recognize meritorious staff is a good initiative and such initiative should be promoted. Apart from reinforcing the awardees' dedication to providing quality service, the award also inspires others to go for excellence. I am very happy to take part in this meaningful event.

I have learned from Mr Walker that the selection criteria for the award winners are very stringent. There are over 2 600 officers in the Driver grade working in more than 10 bureaux and 60 departments. The competition is very keen. It is certainly a great honour to be amongst the top ten. I would like to take this opportunity to give my heartfelt congratulations to the award winners, and to encourage other members of the grade to follow their exemplary performance.

Thank you.


End/Thursday, May 9, 2002
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