GEORGE TOWN, Feb 6 — Civil servants should seek the help of the Penang government if they had taken loans from loan sharks, Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng said today.

In a bid to stop civil servants from taking loans from illegal money lenders known locally as "ah longs", Lim said the state will ensure that these "ah longs" will not want to lend money to civil servants in future.

"Those who have borrowed from ah longs, come to us. We will make reports and take action to help so that you only pay back the capital and not the high interest rates," he said in his speech at the monthly civil servants assembly this morning.

He added that once civil servants borrowed from ah longs, they have to pay back the sum they borrowed but the state together with the police will ensure that the ah longs will not get any interests from the loans.

"This is so that they know that they will not profit from giving loans to civil servants and this will stop them from lending money to civil servants," he said

Lim said he believes that there are currently civil servants who are drowning in debt as they are unable to repay loan sharks who charged high interest repayment rates.

"This may be a sensitive issue but this problem exists amongst the civil servants as it exists amongst the general public," he said.

He said this is why the state government must do something to stop this unhealthy habit.

"We are not blaming the ah longs or those who borrowed from ah longs, we will not punish anyone. The ah longs will get back their capital but without high interests so that they get the message that they must not loan money to civil servants," he said.

He said the state secretary Datuk Seri Farizan Darus will monitor this issue closely.

In commenting on this, Farizan said he had issued a circular in mid January to all heads of departments to check for "high risk" staffs within each department.

"The high risk group is those whose take home pay is 40 per cent and less of their salary where deductions constituted more than 60 per cent of their salary," he said.

He said the head of departments will list out those in the high risk groups and arrange for one-to-one meetings with them.

"I am still awaiting reports from the head of departments and we will also check if any of them took loans from ah long," he said.