KPI? Work or not, Mr Prime Minister?

Koh Tsu Koon is appointed a Senator then becomes the Minister in the Prime Minister in-charge of monitoring the performance of other ministers. Often we heard that KPIs or key performance index is used as a yardstick to measure the performance of an organization, be it business entities or government departments. Having been working in a GLC for the past 10 years, I’m really sick of all these KPI things but have to do it faithfully year after year as it would affect every aspect of your career, your increment, bonus, promotion and so no.

To manage KPIs itself is very time consuming. When I say to manage, basically mean to prepare the KPIs at the beginning of a financial year, mid-year review and final year assessment all these take a lot of time so much so that you have to put everything else aside just to concentrate on preparing, updating and finalizing your KPIs. Your bosses will need evident to support your KPIs apart from the figures, you will have prepare the supporting documents. A lot of paper works and finally, you would realize that your documentation and other papers pertaining to your KPIs will be as thick as a PhD thesis. But at the end, your bosses will tell you that your bonus and increment is not solely hinge upon your own performance, it will depend on the performance of the company as a whole, your department and so no. Put it in other words, bonus and increment is the sole discretion of the company and don’t ever question it. Full stop.

Coming back to Mr Prime Minister using the KPIs to measure the performance of his ministers, there is nothing wrong with that. But he has to make sure that his chieftains are serious about the livelihood of the people and not their own pockets. The political lifespan of the ministers is all depended on many factors. Not many politicians can be as long life as Dr M in terms of political career. The KPIs for the minister are for short term, but the donkey policies made by a lousy minister will affect the people for their whole life. Look at the currently heated topic on the teaching of science and math in English and you will know what I’m referring to.