COS 2015 Debate: MinLaw – Outsourcing of Call Answering Services (MP Sylvia Lim)

By MP for Aljunied GRC, Sylvia Lim
[Delivered in Committee of Supply on 10 March 2015]

Three years ago at MinLaw’s COS, I had highlighted the frustration of several of my residents who were undischarged bankrupts in dealing with the Insolvency & Public Trustee’s Office.  Their experience had been that there were long delays and when they tried to call the officers in charge, they could not even leave phone messages, as the mailboxes were full.

I thus read with interest the Straits Times report of 7 July 2014 that the Ministry of Law had, from 2013, outsourced some call answering services.  The report stated that the Ministry had engaged People Advantage, a subsidiary of Certis CISCO Security, to help it to field public calls from Certis’ call centre at Paya Lebar.  Apparently more than 50 outsourced persons answer the Ministry’s calls.  A Ministry spokesperson explained that the Ministry had wanted to improve the way it responded to public queries and to enable their officers to focus on case-specific issues.

Could the Ministry clarify:

(a)  What led to the decision to outsource call answering?

(b) Has such outsourcing been done for all the Ministry’s departments or only some?

(c)  Has there been any preliminary assessment of cost-effectiveness?

Anecdotally, a resident who recently called IPTO told me that while her call was answered promptly, she was not able to speak to the officers in charge but was told that the officer would call her back within 2 weeks.  Has the Ministry assessed whether the case response times have improved?