Best Sourcing Initiative (BSI)

Mr Zainudin Nordin asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) what are the plans and steps taken for all Government Ministries to support the Best Sourcing Initiative (BSI); (b) how and when are the different Ministries changing their procurement procedures to illustrate the clear intent of the Government on BSI; and (c) how will the Government measure the positive outcomes of the BSI in helping low wage workers get better employment terms.

The Minister of State for Finance (Mrs Josephine Teo) (for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance): Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Member for his question. The Government recognises that Ministries as significant buyers of services have an important role to play in achieving momentum in the Best Sourcing Initiative. In support of the BSI, many public agencies already take into consideration quality and not just price in awarding services tenders. To give just one example, the National Parks Board requires landscape service providers to adopt best practices such as employing professionally certified workers and the use of technology to meet expected performance standards.

All public agencies are also encouraged to adopt recommendations in the Tripartite Advisory on Responsible Outsourcing. This advisory, first released in 2008, is currently being updated by the Ministry of Manpower and its tripartite partners. When the new advisory is ready, the Ministry of Finance will ensure that public agencies are aligned with the revised requirements.

Some Government agencies like the NEA and the Singapore Police Forces' Security Industry Regulatory Department (SIRD) have gone one step further to help professionalise and uplift the cleaning and security sectors which hire large numbers of low wage workers through grading or accreditation schemes. The grading scheme for security agencies was started in 2006 and was made mandatory in 2009. Similarly, the NEA introduced a voluntary accreditation for cleaning companies in July 2010. We have observed that such efforts are effective and will encourage more public agencies to introduce similar programmes.

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To give such efforts an added boost, the Government is currently working with its tripartite partners who identified further measures that can be taken to raise the productivity and professionalism of low-wage jobs and help the workers receive higher wages and better employment terms. The Government will also look into how procurement can be done to support these measures. More details on these measures will be announced later.

Mr Zainudin, who has been a tireless champion for low-wage workers, has brought up these issues several times in this House. He is certainly right that the Best Sourcing Initiative should be assessed by its impact on the wages and employment terms of low-wage workers over time. We hope that this initiative will help not just low-wage workers who are engaged to fulfil Government contracts but also other low-wage workers throughout the economy to achieve better employment terms.

Mr Zainudin Nordin (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Sir, supplementary questions. Based on my personal experience in the past few years with BSI, there are varied outcomes from different partners that we worked with. SIRD has been very positive, PAP Town Councils have been very positive. But I believe that there needs to be some willpower among the Ministries and Government to make sure this change takes place. So my question is: is an advisory sufficient for such a will to make things happen so that changes can come about? Or should there be more than just an advisory, maybe an SOP or an instruction, to clearly articulate the intent of Government to adopt BSI?

Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Speaker, Mr Zainudin has asked a question of how do we get public agencies to respond to what is essentially a set of guidelines that encourages individuals to do something rather than imposes it as a mandatory regulation. He is very right to ask this question. Let me share a little bit of how procurement practices are supervised. One of the important things that is issued and Ministries adhered to, is really the Finance Circular. So when we issue an advisory and supplement it by a Finance Circular, the instruction and the signalling given to the Ministries is that this is something to be taken very seriously and we want them to incorporate it into their procurement procedures.

And so, when the Member talked about the SOP, although it is not strictly a set of procedures that is prescribed, nonetheless, the emphasis is given through the circular. We have adopted this approach of the advisory because practices have to be suitable to the circumstances in which the agencies operate. We also want the agencies to take ownership of it and not just follow these advisories for the sake of it. We want them to go beyond it. So the earlier examples that we cited, SIRD and NParks, are very good examples of how even in the presence of our advisories, agencies can go beyond what is expected of them. I want to assure the Member that this is something that we want to take very seriously. We do recognise that as major buyers, we have an important role to play to sustain this momentum.

Mr Alex Yam: I thank the Minister of State for the reply and the concern for low-wage workers. However, the NParks and SIRD's initiatives have been put in place for a number of years, and these are just two of the positive examples that we have so far. So perhaps if I can ask the Minister of State to update the House, if possible, the proportion of workers on contract with the Ministries who have been hired through the BSI initiative and whether the wages of all these contract workers are also being monitored.

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Mrs Josephine Teo: Sir, what I can share with the Member, Mr Yam, is that the Government employs, through its contractors, about 6,000 cleaners. Now, this is a significant share of the estimated 46,000 local cleaners in Singapore. I do not have the exact figures that will respond to his question directly but what we can say is that what we do in the public sector does have its significant impact on the private sector. The interest to continue to support the BSI and the emphasis on its importance is something that we think and agree is important in moving the momentum forward.

Mr Zainal Sapari (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Sir, I thank the Minister of State for the reply. Can the Minister of State give the assurance that the wages and the employment rights of the outsourced workers under Government BSI contracts will not be worse off compared to if they had not been under a Government BSI contract?

Mrs Josephine Teo: Sir, Mr Zainal Sapari has asked a question of whether we will ensure that the terms being offered under the Government contracts are not worse off than in private sector.

Mr Zainal Sapari: Worse off compared to if they have not been evaluated under a Government BSI contract. Because the move now is for all Government contracts to adhere to BSI guidelines. So can the Minister of State give the assurance that the wages and employment rights of the workers will not be worse off compared to previously, had the contract been a non-BSI contract?

Mrs Josephine Teo: That is certainly our intent and we will work towards that.

Mr Speaker: Mr Patrick Tay, last question.

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Nee Soon): Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to ask the Minister of State, as the Ministries embrace the BSI, whether it would be also extended to the statutory boards as well as the Government-linked companies.

Mrs Josephine Teo: Our emphasis is on the Ministries. For the statutory boards that are within the Ministries' purview of supervision, we would also very much encourage them to adhere to these guidelines. As to the Government-linked companies, they are actually a set of entities that will have to observe their own procurement practices. Our intention, as significant buyers in the market, is to be able to influence the direction in which the market moves whilst not dictating the terms.