Covid-19: Time for lean management and a leaner Cabinet

 

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has announced that ministers and deputy ministers will donate three months’ salary towards tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.

That is good news, of course.

What is the salary of a minister? According to the Members of Parliament (Remuneration) Act 1980, a minister is entitled to a monthly salary of RM14,907.20. Don’t ask me why the 20 sen.

A deputy minister earns RM10,847.65. Again, don’t ask me why the 65 sen.

The prime minister gets RM22,826.65 sen. Again, shhhh…

We can surmise that the pay cut and donation announced by the prime minister was due to public pressure because people have been agitating, on social media and elsewhere, for cuts to the pay of ministers’ and others.

In fact, an online petition launched on Change.org urging Muhyiddin, his ministers, deputy ministers, MPs and state assemblymen to donate 50% of their monthly salary for the duration of the pandemic to the Covid-19 fund has been gaining traction, with almost 11,000 signatures on May 30.

Anyway, it’s smarter to take a three months’ pay cut than to donate half their salaries for the duration of the pandemic. For nobody can predict when the pandemic will end; maybe a year, maybe two years.

The petition states that the closure of Parliament and state assemblies due to the declaration of emergency “disallowed all elected representatives from performing their required democratic duties and to competently administer to the needs of Malaysian citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

In plain language, it means “you haven’t been doing much bro”.

The petition said the money could be used to “support and provide cash assistance to the poor B40 and struggling M40 middle-class groups of Malaysians whose livelihoods are affected by the total lockdown”.

The move to cut the salaries of ministers for three months is, therefore, a politically wise move.

I don’t think the ministers will feel it at all as the cut is to their monthly salary and not their monthly take-home pay, which, former minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman revealed in May last year, is about RM55,000. That excludes other one-off allowances that they get.

We have been under the Covid-19 cloud since March 2020, so how many ministers have really been working during this time of several lockdowns? Yes, the ministers of defence, finance, economy and the vaccination minister have been working very hard. Well done to them.

But what about most of the others?

As a friend asked: “What youth and sports activities have we been having over the past year? What tourism strategies have been implemented? And what are the envoys to China and the Middle East doing to earn their fat salaries at this time of the pandemic?”

Yes. What have the special envoys been doing?

We just learned that 16 People’s Liberation Army Air Force planes flew over Malaysian airspace on May 31 and Wisma Putra has lodged a complaint with Beijing. Isn’t our special envoy to China supposed to enhance relations so that such things do not occur?

We also learned, much earlier, that the special envoy to the Middle East was not in the delegation of the prime minister to Saudi Arabia. Strange. How has he helped enhance relations between Malaysia and the Middle East when all nations have had their hands full battling Covid-19?

Malaysians are sore that the nation has one of the largest Cabinets in the world. Despite having such a large number of “leaders” – and “brains” – to draw upon, the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic continues to be criticised by Malaysians. Some say it’s pathetic.

This may, therefore, be a splendid time to reduce the number of ministers and deputy ministers and channel the money saved monthly towards the fight against Covid-19.

We know how management experts are always extolling lean management. It’s never too late for the government to adopt this practice, especially in its handling of the pandemic.

It can start by trimming the Cabinet fat.

Lean management basically is about maximising value for customers (in this case the public) and minimising waste (like cutting down on large salaries and allowances to ministers and others, and ensuring transparent contract procedures).

A lean team (read Cabinet) will constantly review its product and service (in this case vaccinations and reducing Covid-19 numbers) from the eyes of the customer (public). One question that will be asked by a lean team is how government policies, SOPs and their implementation help the public stay safe, stay employed, stay healthy and hopeful.

One important question a lean government will ask is how it can think in a smart, streamlined way to reduce the steps (and missteps, u-turns and confusion) needed to provide the most value to suffering Malaysians.

Another is: Did we execute our plan and make gains in efficiency (since we started implementing movement control orders in March 2020)?

Yet another question a lean government will tackle is how and where else it can improve its approach to bring value (safety, reduction in Covid-19 cases, normality) to the public.

Perhaps the government should seek advice from a senior Toyota manufacturing official, for Toyota revolutionised the manufacturing industry with its lean production system or Toyota Production System.

Toyota’s management system finds processes that do not work, implements new processes and then retrains its staff.

The Toyota Way actively eliminates waste, inconsistency, and unreasonable requirements.

If the government can only follow this, we will be closer to achieving near-zero cases of Covid-19.

Toyota’s lean management focuses on who is responsible, not who is in charge, as responsibility can be shared but being in charge does not open up the situation for collaboration or contribution by others.

I believe the government has this problem: It is operating in an “I am in charge and if you don’t follow, I will penalise you under new emergency laws” mode. It should shift to “we are all equally responsible, let’s share ideas and work together” mode. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.