From Monday, civil servants will be punctual, says Anwar

 

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim meeting participants of a Madani government event at Universiti Teknologi Mara in Skudai, Johor, today. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: 

From Monday, civil servants will be clocking in on time, following salary increments under a new scheme, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said.

Anwar revealed that the civil service had pledged to be punctual when the government decided on the salary adjustments of between 7% and 15% under the new salary scheme for the public services, Bernama reported.

He said he had instructed the chief secretary to the government Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar and the director-general of public services, Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz, to take immediate action if there are negligence and weaknesses in the public service system.

He said that the move was necessary to protect the reputation of the civil service in line with the salary increment.

When we announced the salary adjustment for public servants, there was a promise that starting this Monday, every office will ensure that public servants come in on time and work hard to improve their performance,

 he was quoted as saying at an event in Johor today.

Anwar said the public would be assessing the performance of the civil servants; if their performance was not up to par, the public would question the government’s decision to increase salaries.

They can evaluate if there is any improvement in terms of the performance by the civil service. And if it is the same as before, the people will question why the government rewards (the civil service with a salary increase) when there is no improvement.

Anwar said efficiency in the public services meant that the people did not have to wait for hours for approvals or to meet goverment officials.

In his speech, Anwar also dismissed claims that the government had not done anything to improve the country’s economy. 

If nothing was done by the government how is it that the economy grew by 5.9% (in the second quarter of this year?

 he said.

Yesterday, Bank Negara Malaysia said that the growth figure was based on stronger household spending, business investments and exports. It was previously estimated that the GDP would grow by 5.8%. - FMT