Najib: Three months to review SBPA

KUANTAN: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today the special task force headed by Tan Sri Ismail Adam has been given three months to review and improve the Public Service New Remuneration Scheme (SBPA).

He said the new scheme should satisfy all before it can be implemented.

"The government will carefully consider the scheme so that all will be satisfied with it," he said at a gathering with the Pahang civil servants today.

Present were 7,000 civil servants, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

Najib said the government was concerned with any dissatisfaction against the SBPA and willing to consider appeals for the purpose of improving it.

The prime minister said the government was also willing to consider giving a higher salary and bonus for civil servants.

"However, this should commensurate with an increase in productivity because if the economy contracts, how would it be possible to increase the salary and bonus?" he said.

Najib told the gathering that civil servants were an important group in the country's administration because they were the implementers of government's policies and agenda either at the state or federal level.

The government was also planning and implementing numerous development programmes using new strategies to realise the country's vision to become a developed nation, which he said, would require the support of civil servants.

"At the dawn of 2020, we want to achieve a developed nation status. I consider the vision by (former prime minister) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as an impactful vision for the country. In less than 10 years, we want to become a developed nation. This is a challenge for us," he said.

New strategies were important to move the country forward, he said. "Some of the strategies being used in the past maybe good and precise at that time but they may now become a constraint in our effort to achieve a higher growth."

It was for this reason that his administration adopted strategies which were tailored to ensure continuity of the visions and aspirations of previous leaderships, he added.

Najib also touched on the 1Malaysia People's Assistance (BR1M) scheme which he said was a much preferred form of assistance compared to indirect ones such as through subsidies and infrastructure development.

"They want to have short-term benefit, so in the 2012 Budget we decided to give BR1M. If we give subsidy, they consider it as an ordinary thing," he said, adding that there would be a total of RM22 billion in subsidy for the people this year.

Najib described the BR1M as the manifestation of the government's intention to help the low income group and the embodiment of the "1Malaysia: People First, Performance Now" concept.

"If we want to succeed in this 21st century, our ideas must be better than the rest so that we can achieve major transformation; but in doing so we must remain realistic," he said.

He added that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government had proven its capability in managing the country.

"If that is the case, if it has been proven effective, then the people should not reject it.

"What is needed is improvement. Don't reject something that has been proven effective," he said. "I don't say we are perfect but if something is not right, we admit it and we carry out improvement in all aspects," he added. - Bernama