A new central office which will serve as a hub for public service operations known as servizz.gov was inaugurated by the prime minister on Wednesday.

Accompanied by Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar, Prime Minister Robert Abela toured the new facilities, which take up a floor of a business centre in Mosta.

The Prime Minister said the public service had been revamped, and its track record was one of serving the people. 

“Our clients are you the people, whom as a government we not only hold dear but strive to keep at the centre of our policies,” Abela said. 

He said that the government had worked to change the perception that public service was bogged down by bureaucracy and it had improved services with unprecedented investment that made service accessible by anyone, anywhere and at any time.   

“However this is not the end goal, but a starting point,” he continued.

“We have to progress by getting to the point where we don’t wait for clients to come to us but we got to them.” 

“I believe this can be achieved by exploring emerging technology and bring the service closer to people by expanding our horizons and how we think.”

“We not only want the public service to be an example for other government departments but a benchmark for the private sector as well.”

Cutajar said the public sector and servizz.gov had grown sharply in the last five years largely through the drive to make the one stop shop service available 24 hours a day throughout the year.

In five years the 23 hubs operated by the public service received 300,000 walk-in clients and answered some 40,000 emails.

Last year some 650,000 telephone calls were answered on the 153 Freephone while this year the figure was nearing 1 million.

Servizz.gov, which offers over 1,500 government services, has received 3 million hits since 2017.