'Cash was king, but now time is money' - PM tells civil servants

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has warned civil servants not to abuse their power and delay government processes on purpose in order to receive bribes.

Mahathir said this when speaking at the Empowering Local Authorities Convention in Putrajaya today, which was attended by about 3,000 mayors, local councillors and local authority officers from across the country.

“Abusing power is easy. At the beginning, they (officers) will delay making a decision (for applications).

“[...] For applicants who are in business, time means money. They have to wait a long time and this inflates their costs.

“To reduce this cost, they (applicants) offer a little bit. When they offer a little bit, they (officers) know that if they purposely delay making decisions, there are benefits for them to enjoy,” he said in his speech.

Mahathir criticised such practices for not only engendering corruption, but also slowing down the overall functioning of the government.

He called for measures to be taken to simplify and speed up applications for a more efficient civil service – including better public education of the steps involved when making applications with local authorities.

“We do not believe that cash is king anymore, we now believe that time is money,” he added.

Stricter timelines

When asked later what the Pakatan Harapan government would do to stem such corrupt practices, Mahathir said stricter timelines would be enforced for each process.

“We have a workflow chart, we have to adhere to this workflow chart. And maybe give time for each process to be carried out.

"Suppose we say (something) should be completed in three days, it must be completed in three days, maybe a day later,” he explained at a press conference.

Despite the warnings he issued in his speech, Mahathir said he believed the level of corruption in the civil service was “very, very low".

"At present, it is very, very low. In fact, we have not really received reports about corruption ever since the new government took over.

“(But) there may still be corruption which is undetected by us,” he said. -Mkini