PUTRAJAYA, April 25 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today gave assurance that the revised Public Service Remuneration System (SSPA), which will be announced soon, will be the best ever introduced in the country.

Anwar, who is also finance minister, said the revised SSPA will also see the highest financial implication ever involved.

“I would like to reiterate that the revised remuneration system is the best and involves the highest financial implication the country has ever seen.

“But it is not your problem, it is our (government) problem to find more money. I want you to know that I do not consider this (remuneration system) a petty or trivial matter,” he said at the Malaysian Administrative and Diplomatic Service Association (PPTD) Aidilfitri Town Hall Meeting with the Prime Minister here today.

The town hall meeting was attended by Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali, director-general of Public Service Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz and over 2,000 administrative and diplomatic officers.

At the same time, Anwar denied that the government only focused on the welfare of civil servants, saying that the government also paid attention to the problems faced by other groups such as farmers and fishermen.

Nevertheless, he said civil servants cannot be compared with others as they are directly under the government’s purview.“So, I told my friends in the Cabinet that we have no choice. We have to give you our best, we must recognise your contributions and provide a more fair remuneration system,” he said.

Anwar said he also wanted top management in the public service to ensure that all groups of civil servants benefited from the system.

“In a meeting with the Chief Secretary to the Government, director-general of Public Service and Treasury secretary-general, I said I don’t want one department, one group that feels they are left behind. We want to make a comprehensive review of this remuneration system and I have asked for it to be done together with civil service reform,” he said.

Therefore, Anwar wanted civil servants to provide better work performance while being monitored by their respective heads of departments. He also stressed that recognition or promotion should not be given to lazy and underperforming civil servants.

“If we want to raise the dignity of our country, if we want to be more efficient, if we want to value people in terms of their performance, we should not give recognition simply based on their age or length of their service,” he said.

In addition, the prime minister also wanted all facilities provided for civil servants deployed from the peninsula to Sabah and Sarawak or vice versa to be reviewed.

At the event, Anwar also announced a special allocation of RM2 million to PPTD for the implementation of activities that have been planned to be carried out perfectly. — Bernama