The new reality for government: Saudi Arabia

Governments around the world have taken the lead on COVID-19 response efforts. At an unprecedented rate, political and civil service leaders are navigating a broad range of interrelated issues. They range from issuing and monitoring new citizen benefit schemes and business stimulus packages, to assuming responsibility for critical supply chains, to reorienting their own operations.

COVID-19 has altered the role of government and the way it works. New and critical services have been developed and there is a new – albeit temporary – fiscal paradigm as governments have become all-pervasive in the lives and livelihoods of many people. In many countries and territories, parts of government shifted to remote working overnight and staff adapted to this and to new and pressing priorities.

While the pressures it has placed on governments are huge, and the human consequences of the crisis are tragic, COVID-19 has presented governments with an opportunity by removing the inertia that previously constrained them. Traditionally, the public sector was regarded as being behind the private sector in many areas, particularly customer experience, but it has shown that it can be agile and fast moving.

Clearly there are some good reasons why government has been more conservative regarding change. It does require safeguards, controls and structures to catch up with the pace of change, but leaders should aim to achieve this without slowing the overall speed of progress. To use a children’s story analogy, they should look to speed up the tortoise, rather than slowing down the hare.

Since the start of the pandemic, at KPMG we have listened to our government and public sector clients, provided insights and worked shoulder to shoulder with them on response efforts. As countries and territories begin to recover, KPMG’s Global Government and Public Sector practice is sharing further insights through “The new reality for government” thought leadership. This campaign features commentary on six key areas of change and opportunity that leaders may want to consider to position their organizations for a new, resilient, post-pandemic reality.

At KPMG, we have a deep understanding of the issues governments face as a result of COVID-19. We have leveraged our global network of highly experienced professionals from across a wide range of functional service areas to develop the following insights.