The exhortations by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and the leadership of the public service on the need to serve the population better are not new – there having been similar ones in the past (Public servants must be willing to reimagine govt policies: DPM Heng, Oct 20).

Apart from the need for civil servants to have a good sense of the ground, Mr Heng suggested the need for empathy and a willingness to do things differently.

Civil service head Leo Yip said the civil service must be willing to evolve and stressed the need to “relentlessly improve and transform the way it works”.

Examples were given of how the service has made life better, but I feel that much remains to be done at the grassroots level.

For a start, the service should respond more consistently to public complaints published in the press. Letters are at times ignored. Most of the time, the responses take the template reply of thanking the writer, followed by a reiteration of current policies, why they are good, and ending with an invitation to visit their website for more information. In other words, members of the public are at times given short shrift.

If the civil service is serious about its commitment to serving the public with empathy and wants to sustain and renew trust with citizens, then it has to do better.

Having a scorecard of the improvements it has made over the years and sharing it with the public would be a good start.

Danny Chow