Hire and fire is inevitable in Malaysian Civil Service — Stephen Ng

SEPT 1 — For many years, Malaysia’s 1.6 million civil servants have always been a big burden to the country’s coffers. The bloated civil service is also reportedly the highest in number of government employees compared to the rest of the world.

As a result, civil servants themselves cannot enjoy a quantum leap in their salaries by the sheer number of people in the civil service. Just one percent increment could mean an increase of several millions of Ringgit per annum.

Unless these civil servants are productive and able to help expand the country’s gross domestic products, they are causing the country’s public fund to bleed. Every year, some RM76 billion is paid as salaries for the civil servants, with another RM18 billion spent on just the pensions. With such a bloated civil service, the amount to be paid out as pensions would surely increase many more in years to come.

Since their salaries are paid by taxpayers’ hard-earned money, I therefore strongly urge the government to carry out the necessary reforms in the civil service by cutting down the number of civil servants by at least 10 percent every two years until it has reached a comfortable point.

With over a trillion Ringgit in debts, the government has no choice but to implement some drastic measures to revive an ailing government machinery, plagued by non-performers and corruptible government officers.

Hire and fire is now inevitable in the Malaysian civil service. We will never see proper reforms until the deadwoods are removed from the government machinery.

During Barisan Nasional’s rule, there are reports of high wastages in government agencies highlighted by the Auditor General’s Office. Despite public funds being plundered year after year, there is hardly any fear of being punished. The thievery continues, and these errant public servants escape punishment.

I have observed the way how local council staff carry out their work for the past 30 years since I started getting on the back of the Kuala Lumpur City Hall, the then Petaling Jaya Municipal Council and Selayang Municipal Council.

Since May 9, we know that civil servants are sabotaging the government of the day. Therefore, unless they are prepared to change, there is no reason to keep them within the civil service. Gone are the days when every civil servant can enjoy their most cherished perk – extraordinary job security!

 My bet is that, if they were employed by the private sector, they would have lost their jobs; however, these civil servants cannot be easily terminated once they are employed by the Public Services Department.

All that can happen is that they are transferred to another department or cold storage. Very seldom they are demoted, or even sacked.

But times have changed. Civil servants who are unproductive and a bane to the civil service will have to be axed if they fail to deliver their Key Performance Index (KPI); otherwise, it does not make sense if the ministers are given the KPIs, but the people who are supposed to be supporting him are let go when they fail to perform.

According to the Institute for Public Policy Research’s (IPPR) report, senior civil servants in Britain will now be held accountable to the ministers and to Parliament.

The IPPR’s findings, which are backed by the Labour Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Margaret Hodge, have become part of the nation’s efforts to reform its civil service. This will be the biggest shake-up of in Britain’s government machinery. 

In Australia, the Public Sector Management Act 1994 states that government department heads have the power to select, remunerate, redeploy or terminate the employment of an individual employee.

The Australian Education Act 2013 also allows the Director-General of Education to fire anyone in the teaching profession under certain circumstances.

It is time now to make it easier to fire civil servants who are working against the political will of the government of the day.

For sure Barisan Nasional opposition members will exploit the issue; however, until we adopt the right not only to hire but to fire errant employees, we will never see proper reforms in the way how the country is run. It is also important to hire the right people for the right job.