KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 ― The government's wage bill for 2015 exceeded by 8.5 per cent the original budgeted sum for the year, the World Bank said in its Malaysian Economic Monitor report released today.

It said much of Putrajaya's success in its fiscal consolidation exercise can be attributed to subsidy cuts but the wage bill, which accounts for 41 per cent of total operating expenditure, remained high.

"The wage bill… exceeded the budgeted amount by 8.5 per cent, mainly due to bonus to civil servants and special assistance to government pensioners.

"Higher actual wage bill above budgeted amounts have been on an upward trend for the last few years,” the report said.

Critics often suggest the government distributes bonuses and increases staff salaries to buy loyalty, especially from the ethnic Malays who form the powerbase of ruling party Umno.

The perks are given despite widespread complaints of incompetence, critics allege.

Despite the significant drop in revenue over the global oil price rout, the government in March said it will implement the additional salary increment for 1.4 million civil servants on July 1 as promised in Budget 2016.

Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa said the minimum salary of RM1,200 a month for civil servants would also be implemented on the same date.

Malaysia's civil service is among the biggest in Asia Pacific, with a ratio of 4.6 per cent to the population compared to Indonesia's 1.79, South Korea's 1.85 and Thailand's 2.06, according to a United Nations Economic and Social survey in 2011.

But Putrajaya's fiscal consolidation have remained on track, the World Bank report noted, adding that it expected Malaysia to meet its 3.1 per cent deficit-to-GDP target this year.