.jpg "Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail arrives at the National Institute of Public Administration in Kuala Lumpur July 4, 2019. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Choo Choy May")
KUALA LUMPUR, July 4 — Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail defended the country’s civil service today against the latest World Bank economic monitor report stating that it has a large wage bill but has been stagnating since 2014.
The deputy prime minister said the report unfairly merged the uniformed service with government servants, noting that it assessed this combined civil service as having low accountability, impartiality, transparency and openness.
“I was just asking the civil service, what constitutes the civil service? This is because our civil service includes uniformed people as well.
“So I think if you take out, I think our civil service population is not that bad. So, comparatively, I don’t think that it’s fair to say that they are not doing well,” she told reporters after officiating the 18th Civil Service Conference at the National Institute of Public Administration (Intan) today.
Dr Wan Azizah said the unfair merger of the two services had resulted in the perception of a lack of efficiency, but added that this might be derived from large number of civil servants.
Before the DPM, Chief Secretary to the Government Datuk Ismail Bakar said several initiatives to improve public services such as institutional reforms and public sector reforms had already been launched to improve civil service efficacy.
The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services President Datuk Azih Muda also criticised the World Bank report, saying the public sector has been working hard to ease in the new Pakatan Harapan coalition after it won the May 2018 elections.
