Last year's PS21 ExCEL Convention Awards Ceremony was held at the Victoria Concert Hall on 13 November. ExCEL, which stands for Excellence through Continuous Enterprise and Learning, encourages public officers to develop their capabilities and improve the way things are done. A total of 48 awards were given out in five categories.

MCDS officer Sharon Chua from the Destitute Persons Service bagged an Outstanding Award for the Best Staff Suggestion Scheme. Sharon had suggested helping residents of welfare homes open saving accounts and obtain waiver of fall-below fees.

"It took us more than 6 months to have the procedures put in place for our 10 welfare homes. I am happy to be able to help the residents, and also glad that my efforts were recognised," said Sharon.

Public officers were able to showcase their ideas and Work Improvement Team (WIT) projects at the PS21 ExCEL Convention 2003 held from 4 to 7 November 2003 at the Civil Service College. The four-day convention saw 376 teams taking part and competing for the top honours.

Our Ministry and statutory boards received a grand total of three golds, five silvers and two bronzes, although participants from the teams let on that getting there was not an easy task.

Said Seah Ser Huat from the Sparkle team from the Internal Audit Unit (IAU), "We constantly fine-tuned and improved on our project and changed our approach based on feedback that we received. It was a very challenging process." The Sparkle team had set up an in-house audit database to cut down precious man-hours previously spent searching for audit findings.

Policy Inc from Rehabilitation and Protection Division (RPD) had to grapple with initial logistical problems when working on their project - a comprehensive Public Communication package detailing the work of their division. However, the team members were undaunted. "The group meetings brought us together not only to brainstorm for ideas, potential problems and solutions but also to build camaraderie," said Salomah Mohamed, assistant leader of Policy Inc.

Aside from tackling the problem of an inefficient mailing database system, members of TOY Box, from the Family Education Department (FED), felt that the bonds built would go a long way in enabling the department to work more effectively and efficiently.