Sense of superiority among challenges in civil service: chief secretary

 

The public service faces three significant challenges, which require urgent improvements, said Chief Secretary to the Government Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar.

He said that, from personal observation, the first challenge is the entrenched mentality of working in silos, and the pervasive bureaucracy still present in some government agencies.

He explained that this arises from a sense of superiority or self-importance among the staff until it appears they believe absolute power resides solely within their agency.

“So, if you want to approve one of those development projects, you have to go through a process that involves all these ministries and agencies. Correct, each one has its own function and role.

“However, this should not justify excessively long processing times for projects, which can delay completion, and fail to meet stakeholders’ and customers’ expectations,” he said, in his speech at the KSN Leadership Aspiration Programme in Putrajaya today.

Shamsul identified the second challenge as being service delivery methods that are outdated, inefficient, and non-competitive.

He noted that this aligns with the Public Complaints Bureau report, which highlighted that most complaints this year were related to unmet customer expectations, issues with public facilities and infrastructure, and weak enforcement.

“We are talking about technology designed to enhance service delivery efficiency, yet we still receive complaints from customers such as ‘the government is slow,’ ‘the government is indifferent,’ and ‘out of 10 counters, only one is open,’ among others.

Commenting further, Shamsul identified the third challenge as concerns about the integrity of public servants, acknowledging that ‘Little Napoleons’ still exist within government organisations.

He cited statistics from the MACC which reported 408 arrests involving civil servants, compared to 318 arrests for the same period last year.

“We also tend to become complacent with what we have, which I believe is due to a lack of appreciation for the values that guide us as individuals, such as the Madani concept mooted by the prime minister.

“It is clear that these values are still weakly integrated,” he said.

Shamsul emphasised that addressing these challenges requires immediate improvements.

“It is crucial to ensure that all highlighted initiatives are of high quality, and truly resonate with the needs of the people,” he said.

- Bernama