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http://www.thegovmonitor.com/world_...-more-than-1000-home-team-officers-31626.html
Singapore Promotes More Than 1,000 Home Team Officers
Source: Government of Singapore Posted on: 23rd May 2010
Zero tolerance policy to corruption instils public confidence in Home Team officers: DPM Wong.
The Home Team Senior Officers’ Promotion Ceremony at Orchard Hotel Ballroom 1 & 2 – Speech by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Wong Kan Seng, 21 May 2010.
Home Team Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good evening.
Tonight, we mark the promotion of more than 1,000 Home Team Senior Officers. These promotions reflect not only our recognition of your good performance but also our assessment of your potential to shoulder greater responsibilities at a higher rank or grade.
On your promotion, more is and will be expected of you. As supervisors and managers, you must set an example for others to follow. You will be held to a higher standard.
Integrity, moral courage, strong professional competencies and a dedication to duty and to the well-being of your men – these are qualities which your officers expect of you. Of these qualities, integrity is perhaps the most crucial to inspire and sustain respect and trust by others.
Public confidence depends on the impartiality and integrity of Home Team officers
Public confidence in the Home Team depends not just on our proven competencies to get the job done but also on the impartiality and integrity of our officers. Hence, we have a zero tolerance policy to corruption and we must never go soft on this. Likewise, we must cultivate an organisational culture within our Home Team departments which value honest feedback from the men on the ground because this is the only way we can genuinely improve our processes and performance.
I appreciate that it is sometimes difficult for the man on the ground because on the one hand, he is supposed to be accessible to the public so that they would confidently turn to him in times of need. On the other hand, he must constantly ensure that no matter how friendly he is to the public he serves, he must always draw a clear line between his personal relationships and professional duties.
Exercising judgement in this regard has become undoubtedly more challenging in the context of today’s society. However, integrity and professionalism on account of relationships cannot be compromised.
Integrity for a supervisor or manager is more than just his own honesty. He is entrusted with the job of keeping his team of officers honest as well. He must have the moral courage to take those who go astray to task lest they contaminate the rest and undermine the good name of the organisation. He must also have the moral courage to defend and represent the interests of his men when required.
Operationally, the supervisor or manager should have the professional competencies to know how to adapt existing SOPs (standard operating procedures) and have the courage to do so to achieve the right outcome, all the while ready to be accountable for his actions. He should neither be trapped in an unthinking compliance mode with regards to SOPs nor be hostage to the pressures of achieving KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) at all costs even when these measures are badly conceived or become flawed over time as operating realities change.
I want to stress that ultimately the core strength of the Home Team is its people. No matter how good a system we may have, in the final analysis, it’s the quality of our people who will determine success in our mission and the reputation of the organisation. And in this connection, public trust in the honesty and impartiality of our officers is a crucial factor to our continued success and effectiveness as a Home Team.
Success and effectiveness are also tied to the level of professional competencies of our officers to adequately meet the challenges of their work. The Home Team today operates in a security landscape that presents both varied and complex challenges. The demands and expectations placed on the Home Team and its officers have increased and will continue to increase.
Building specialist capabilities and capacities
To meet these challenges, we will, among other things, be focussing on building specialist capabilities and capacities in areas that are critical to the Home Team’s front-line operations. These would be in operational domains such as fire investigation, scene-of-crime forensics and cyber-crime forensics, criminal intelligence and criminal psychology, as well as protective security.
We have been growing our specialists and subject experts over the years. For instance, our Home Team psychologists from Police, Prisons and the Behavioural Science Unit of HTA have just concluded earlier this week, the organisation of a major international conference on Police and Criminal Psychology, attracting and bringing together practitioners from over ten countries for the first time in Singapore.
I announced at the Home Team Convention last Friday that we will introduce a new Home Team Specialist Scheme to attract, train and develop a cadre of officers with specialist competencies in front-line operational areas. Details about these new specialist tracks will be shared in a series of HR briefings for our men in the weeks ahead.
The bottom-line is that this new scheme is meant to augment our staffing levels with appropriately trained people and over time, deepen even further our expertise in key areas vital to our Home Team agencies. The scheme does not in any way diminish the premium value that we place on our uniformed scheme of services in the Home Team.
Indeed, we will be re-structuring the career progression for our HUS junior officers so that the majority of them would be able to reach Senior Officer ranks faster and take on leadership roles in the front line. This we hope will enhance the career progression and professional development of Home Team officers.
We recognize that many of our junior officers today have higher career aspirations and desire leadership or managerial roles at some point in their career. We will be expanding opportunities for academic upgrading, training and development, as well as job rotation and exposure opportunities to maximize the potential of our promising officers. With these enhancements, they can now look forward to more opportunities to assuming Senior Officer appointments.
The future of the Home Team looks bright and a career in the Home Team promises to be as deeply fulfilling as it is exciting. In all our organisational health surveys over the years, even as our officers give us candid feedback about the heavy work-load they face, they also consistently express deep job satisfaction. They know that what they do makes a difference to Singapore and to the lives of their fellow Singaporeans.
All of you have a sacred duty to help achieve the Home Team’s mission and always keep Singapore safe and secure.
Let me once again congratulate all officers on your well-deserved promotion. I wish you a pleasant evening ahead. Thank you.
Singapore Promotes More Than 1,000 Home Team Officers
Source: Government of Singapore Posted on: 23rd May 2010
Zero tolerance policy to corruption instils public confidence in Home Team officers: DPM Wong.
The Home Team Senior Officers’ Promotion Ceremony at Orchard Hotel Ballroom 1 & 2 – Speech by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Wong Kan Seng, 21 May 2010.
Home Team Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good evening.
Tonight, we mark the promotion of more than 1,000 Home Team Senior Officers. These promotions reflect not only our recognition of your good performance but also our assessment of your potential to shoulder greater responsibilities at a higher rank or grade.
On your promotion, more is and will be expected of you. As supervisors and managers, you must set an example for others to follow. You will be held to a higher standard.
Integrity, moral courage, strong professional competencies and a dedication to duty and to the well-being of your men – these are qualities which your officers expect of you. Of these qualities, integrity is perhaps the most crucial to inspire and sustain respect and trust by others.
Public confidence depends on the impartiality and integrity of Home Team officers
Public confidence in the Home Team depends not just on our proven competencies to get the job done but also on the impartiality and integrity of our officers. Hence, we have a zero tolerance policy to corruption and we must never go soft on this. Likewise, we must cultivate an organisational culture within our Home Team departments which value honest feedback from the men on the ground because this is the only way we can genuinely improve our processes and performance.
I appreciate that it is sometimes difficult for the man on the ground because on the one hand, he is supposed to be accessible to the public so that they would confidently turn to him in times of need. On the other hand, he must constantly ensure that no matter how friendly he is to the public he serves, he must always draw a clear line between his personal relationships and professional duties.
Exercising judgement in this regard has become undoubtedly more challenging in the context of today’s society. However, integrity and professionalism on account of relationships cannot be compromised.
Integrity for a supervisor or manager is more than just his own honesty. He is entrusted with the job of keeping his team of officers honest as well. He must have the moral courage to take those who go astray to task lest they contaminate the rest and undermine the good name of the organisation. He must also have the moral courage to defend and represent the interests of his men when required.
Operationally, the supervisor or manager should have the professional competencies to know how to adapt existing SOPs (standard operating procedures) and have the courage to do so to achieve the right outcome, all the while ready to be accountable for his actions. He should neither be trapped in an unthinking compliance mode with regards to SOPs nor be hostage to the pressures of achieving KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) at all costs even when these measures are badly conceived or become flawed over time as operating realities change.
I want to stress that ultimately the core strength of the Home Team is its people. No matter how good a system we may have, in the final analysis, it’s the quality of our people who will determine success in our mission and the reputation of the organisation. And in this connection, public trust in the honesty and impartiality of our officers is a crucial factor to our continued success and effectiveness as a Home Team.
Success and effectiveness are also tied to the level of professional competencies of our officers to adequately meet the challenges of their work. The Home Team today operates in a security landscape that presents both varied and complex challenges. The demands and expectations placed on the Home Team and its officers have increased and will continue to increase.
Building specialist capabilities and capacities
To meet these challenges, we will, among other things, be focussing on building specialist capabilities and capacities in areas that are critical to the Home Team’s front-line operations. These would be in operational domains such as fire investigation, scene-of-crime forensics and cyber-crime forensics, criminal intelligence and criminal psychology, as well as protective security.
We have been growing our specialists and subject experts over the years. For instance, our Home Team psychologists from Police, Prisons and the Behavioural Science Unit of HTA have just concluded earlier this week, the organisation of a major international conference on Police and Criminal Psychology, attracting and bringing together practitioners from over ten countries for the first time in Singapore.
I announced at the Home Team Convention last Friday that we will introduce a new Home Team Specialist Scheme to attract, train and develop a cadre of officers with specialist competencies in front-line operational areas. Details about these new specialist tracks will be shared in a series of HR briefings for our men in the weeks ahead.
The bottom-line is that this new scheme is meant to augment our staffing levels with appropriately trained people and over time, deepen even further our expertise in key areas vital to our Home Team agencies. The scheme does not in any way diminish the premium value that we place on our uniformed scheme of services in the Home Team.
Indeed, we will be re-structuring the career progression for our HUS junior officers so that the majority of them would be able to reach Senior Officer ranks faster and take on leadership roles in the front line. This we hope will enhance the career progression and professional development of Home Team officers.
We recognize that many of our junior officers today have higher career aspirations and desire leadership or managerial roles at some point in their career. We will be expanding opportunities for academic upgrading, training and development, as well as job rotation and exposure opportunities to maximize the potential of our promising officers. With these enhancements, they can now look forward to more opportunities to assuming Senior Officer appointments.
The future of the Home Team looks bright and a career in the Home Team promises to be as deeply fulfilling as it is exciting. In all our organisational health surveys over the years, even as our officers give us candid feedback about the heavy work-load they face, they also consistently express deep job satisfaction. They know that what they do makes a difference to Singapore and to the lives of their fellow Singaporeans.
All of you have a sacred duty to help achieve the Home Team’s mission and always keep Singapore safe and secure.
Let me once again congratulate all officers on your well-deserved promotion. I wish you a pleasant evening ahead. Thank you.
