GovTech restructuring not part of a broad-based exercise across public service: PSD
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The restructuring reflects GovTech’s own operating needs as it adjusts to the broader changes in the technology sector, PSD said in a statement.
ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
SINGAPORE – The Government Technology Agency’s restructuring is not part of a broad-based exercise across the public service, said the Public Service Division (PSD) on July 17.
The restructuring – where GovTech retrenched 93 employees – reflects its own operating needs as it adjusts to the broader changes in the technology sector, PSD said in a statement in response to media queries.
These include rapid advances in technology and changing ways of developing and delivering digital products, PSD said.
GovTech announced its restructuring on July 15. It said then that it expects a total of 7 per cent to 9 per cent of roles in its workforce of about 3,900 to be affected by restructuring over the next two years.
PSD said that more significant restructuring in the public service is undertaken only where necessary.
This would be in response to fundamental changes in an agency’s operating environment, mission or operating model, added PSD, which oversees the public service.
Public service agencies continually review their organisations, functions, operating models, and workforce requirements to meet changing needs and priorities, it said.
Most workforce changes are made progressively, through reskilling, job redesign, redeployment and natural attrition, it said.
The 93 staff members affected by GovTech’s restructuring have been offered a public service resignation scheme, PSD said.
The Special Resignation Scheme (SRS) provides financial support for public officers whose roles are no longer needed, and who cannot be redeployed to another suitable role within the organisation or the broader public sector.
The first priority is to reskill and redeploy the officers, whether within their agency or elsewhere in the public service, said PSD.
Where redeployment is not feasible, affected officers may be offered the SRS.
PSD added that the public service’s purpose is to serve Singapore and Singaporeans.
“To do this well, agencies must continue to transform and ensure that the public service workforce remains effective, responsive and ready for the future, while supporting public officers through change,” it said.
GovTech chairman Chng Kai Fong on July 15 said in a note sent to the agency’s 3,900 employees that the restructuring is meant to take GovTech from managing projects delivered by vendors to running products itself.
This is so it can respond and adjust quickly to national needs.
“This is not an AI-driven downsizing exercise. This shift began years before the current AI wave,” Chng said in the note, which was also sent to the media.
GovTech had said over two-thirds of officers identified in its first phase of the restructuring have been retained in their current roles or will be retrained into new roles. The restructuring process will happen in three phases.
It said 102 were retained, while 110 were put into apprenticeships to reskill. The 93 retrenched employees make up the remainder.
