Putrajaya will shave a third of 18k contracted officers

Putrajaya will shave slightly over a third of the 17,942 government officers who were hired on a contract basis by the previous administration.

According to Law Minister Liew Vui Keong, 3,242 (18.12 percent of the total figure) were terminated because their project or task had been either completed or discontinued, while 2,934 (16.35 percent) will be terminated when their contract ends.

“(However,) the contract for 11,394 (63.51 percent) officers who are working as kindergarten teachers, drivers, administrative officers will be continued.

“(The fate of) another 277 (1.54 percent) is being considered by their new agencies, while another 85 (0.48 percent) will be given other placements,” he said in a parliamentary written reply.

Liew said all those who are terminated will be given a month’s notice, or a month’s wages if they were terminated without notice, in accordance with government rules.

He added that these officers were placed, among others, in the Prime Minister’s Department’s Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU), the Performance and Management Delivery Unit (Pemandu), Special Affairs Department (Jasa), National Unity and Integration Department (Perpaduan), and Community Development Department (Kemas).

Both Pemandu and Jasa have been disbanded.

Liew was responding to a question from Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang.

Axes began to fall on political appointees soon after Dr Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as prime minister.

At the time, Mahathir said the large number of political appointees were a form of “wastage” by the previous administration and that the figure would be trimmed. -Mkini