No golf for Malacca civil servants during office hours

CM Idris Haron says he enforced this rule in 2013 and he himself only plays golf after 5pm.

MALACCA: Civil servants in Malacca are disallowed from playing golf during office hours, from 8am to 5pm, even on weekends and when on leave.

Chief Minister Idris Haron said today he enforced this rule when he took office in 2013 to uphold the image and impression portrayed by civil servants and the state government in the eyes of the people.

“I myself only play golf after 5pm. Some gave the excuse that they were on leave but I stressed that no civil servant will be allowed to play golf during office hours.

“If they still wished to play, then they should do it outside Malacca.

“Initially, there were some who broke the rule. We took action. Now all of them understand,” he said at a press conference after chairing the weekly meeting of the state executive council in Ayer Keroh here.

Idris was commenting on a recent newspaper report of a reminder by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to civil servants to stop playing golf overseas.

Meanwhile, Federation of Malay Economic Bodies (Gabem) chairman Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik said playing golf was a recreation and it was a pastime for civil servants.

He said it was not wrong for civil servants to play golf so long as their official duties were uninterrupted and they did not do so using office funds or money from dubious sources.

“What’s wrong in playing golf after an important conference or meeting?

“Don’t tell me one must confine oneself to a meeting room for 24 hours? One will faint.

“Surely there must be time for rest and sleep,” he said to reporters after opening the “Landscape Management Comparative Study Exhibition: Seoul, Korea” in Alor Gajah.

Rahim said, however, that using office funds to travel to Bangkok, for example, to play golf was definitely wrong.

He also said the MACC’s decision to monitor and investigate civil servants playing golf overseas, on suspicion they may be involved in corruption, was most welcome. -FMT