“Because we are part of the Prime Minister’s Office and not aligned to any particular ministry or agency, our greatest advantage is that we are able to cross boundaries.”
Chris Tan, Director, PEMANDU
Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU)
Case Study
Leadership
Methods
Partnersh- ips
Location in government
National government
Where it is based
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Mission statement
“To translate the government’s vision into detailed action plans and to monitor the implementation of these plans to ensure outcomes/objectives are met.”
Annual spend
£7.3 million (2011)1
Size of team
135
Example of impact
One of PEMANDU’s projects supported Malaysian law enforcement and reduced reported street crime by 35% in one year.
Based in the Prime Minister’s Department, the Performance Management & Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) is charged with transforming Malaysia into a high-income economy by 2020, through transforming public services and attracting foreign investment into the private sector. It does this by acting as an in-house government consultancy, supporting ministries in developing and implementing new solutions to transform Malaysian public services.
“Because we are part of the Prime Minister’s Office and not aligned to any particular ministry or agency, our greatest advantage is that we are able to cross boundaries.”
Chris Tan, Director, PEMANDU
What it does
PEMANDU was established to support the implementation of Malaysia’s National Transformation Programme, which aims to turn Malaysia in to a high-income economy by 2020. PEMANDU – which is Malaysisan for ‘drive’ - is shaped by the belief that methods and approaches used in the private sector can be applied successfully to the public sector.
PEMANDU has two programmes. The Government Transformation Programme (GTP) focuses on how the government and the private sector can modernize how the Malaysian Government operates. In tandem with this is the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) which focuses on attracting private investment into Malaysia.2
[ Insert text box/diagram on Eight-step Big Fast Results Methodology]
Using its eight step Big Fast Results process, the Government Transformation Programme is addressing seven national key results areas. These range from addressing the rising cost of living to fighting corruption. PEMANDU works towards a single measure of success – to what extent projects contribute to Malaysia becoming a high-income economy, as classified by the World Bank.
Highlights of the impact of PEMANDU’s work on the Government Transformation Programme include supporting law enforcement to achieve a 35 per cent drop in reported street crime within one year and helping around two million people in rural areas to access potable drinking water, electrical services, roads and housing.
Interesting features
- Leadership: Established by the Prime Minister and based within his department, one of the key features of PEMANDU is the strong buy-in its work has from senior political leadership. This makes it easy for PEMANDU to elevate implementation issues with involved ministries to the Prime Minister, and to easily coordinate efforts across government.
- Partnerships: PEMANDU builds strong partnerships with the ministries across the Malaysian Government responsible for delivering any one of seven national key results areas. Each ministry has dedicated staff to work closely with PEMANDU on implementing the initiatives.
- Methods: PEMANDU grounds its work on the Big Fast Results method (shown above), was originally developed in the private sector. The method helps monitor progress of large scale interventions.
Learn more
Read the full case study on PEMANDU in the i-teams report
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Website
www.pemandu.gov.my
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Footnotes
- The Sun Daily, 1 November 2010, Idris Jala clarifies use of PEMANDU operating budget. Available online: http://www.thesundaily.my/node/136751 [Last accessed 9 May 2026] Con-version: (MYR) 0.182723 to £1, as exchange rate on 21/01/2013, taken from: http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/full/
- The Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) was launched in September 2010. Its goal is to attract US$444 billion in investments and create 3.3 million new jobs. The GTP was launched in September 2009 with the primary objective to transform the delivery and efficiency of public services in Malaysia
Photo Credit: PEMANDU is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Petronas Towers by J P is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
