Benchmarking in practice : a maintenance tool for continuous improvement

Abstract

Why benchmarking? : In his budget speech for 2001, the Minister of Finance announced that the Maltese public sector would be introducing benchmarking as a tool that would provide it with a means for improving the quality and access of its service delivery. For this purpose, a Steering Committee was appointed within the aegis of the Ministry of Finance in order to strategically direct the implementation of benchmarking. Subsequently, two benchmarking pilot projects were successfully undertaken during 2001 by the Homes for the Elderly (Ministry of Social Policy) and the Government Garage (Ministry of Environment). The partners in both exercises were local private companies. In his budget speech for 2002, the Minister of Finance announced that on the basis of the registered success, benchmarking was to become a corporate activity for the public sector as a tool would enable the carrying out of Efficiency Reviews. The primary aim of Efficiency Reviews was to improve resource utilisation by the public sector, while securing an improved service delivery and: " ... help us identify better the inefficiencies and waste as well as due remedies and an action programme to reducing existing problems" (Minister of Finance, Budget Speech for 2002). The above is an extract from the publication of the Management Efficiency Unit (MEU) within the Office of the Prime Minister in 2002, entitled Benchmarking Guidebook: A tool for Public Sector Efficiency Review. I choose to quote the above since it provides a clear and accurate explanation on how and why benchmarking was introduced in the Public Sector. This guidebook, published by the MEU consequently to the budget speech given by the Minister of Finance, was the first step towards the introduction of benchmarking as a management tool within the public sector. The aim of this guidebook was to provide sufficient background information on how to conduct benchmarking in the context of efficiency reviews. It also explained how the responsibilities for conducting benchmarking exercises had to be shared and which were the primary roles of each responsible group. The purpose of this report: My aim in this report is to provide a clear definition and explanation of benchmarking and to provide a clear picture of how it is being implemented within the public service and the public sector. To this effect, I have also conducted two interviews: the first with Mr Christopher Magri, Programme Manager within the Financial Management Monitoring Unit (FMMU), Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the second with Ms Dorothy Fenech, Principal, Charter Support Unit (CSU), Staff Development Organisation (SDO), Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). Finally, I carried out a benchmarking exercise using the data stored within the Customer Care System that is managed and maintained by the CSU, SDO. The aim of the latter exercise is to provide an explanation of how benchmarking can help improve public service and illustrate step by step how a benchmarking exercise can be carried out. […]