Review of New Salary Scheme for Civil Servants(SBPA0

Press statement by Dr Cheah Soon Hai,

Chairman of Central Bureau of Environment,Safety & Quality of Life

Kedah Gerakan Chairman and Derga State Assemblyman

19-01-2012

We welcome the decision by the government to revise the remuneration system of the civil service, this initiative will help to relieve the financial burden of the civil servants, especially those categorised in the Implementation Group.[1]

 - The government should review the new remuneration scheme for the civil servants under the Implementation Group, if the adjustment for their salary is too low, it may be hard for them to cope with the inflation that takes a toll on the living cost, therefore the government should take into consideration of various factors, make suitable adjustment to the remuneration system of the civil servants.

 

- However relatively the civil servants in the Premier Group, Top Management Group, and the Management and Professional Group, their salary is already at a high level, while under the new remuneration scheme, if the government still wanted to increase the salary in a big scale for these groups, this will further widen the income gap in between the Implementation Group and the Management Groups, at the same time it will be affecting the working morale of the Implementation Group and leads to psychological imbalance.

 

- Besides, the difference in the new remuneration scheme for the new and senior civil servants also needed to be reviewed, for example the Grade DG54 civil servants, the new recruits will get a pay rise for RM1800 while at the same time the senior officers will only get RM300 pay rise under the new remuneration scheme, and this is extremely unfair.[2]

The present  proposed salary increment defeat the purpose of lesser the burden of lower income group.

 

- The government should review the allocation problem of the civil servants, to avoid the excess of manpower happening in every ministries or departments. The government should allocate the human resources properly, carry out policy change, optimum utilization of talents, and reduce the government spending on resources.

We support the ‘exit policy‘ for the non-performing civil servants. The civil servants need to be accountable for their actions or decisions.

- The idea by the government of having chief executive officers from the private sector appointed as secretaries-general of civil service in every government ministries and departments to manage the civil servants; should not dampen the morale of the civil servants.

In reference to the situation, the government should make the best adjustment accordingly, transfer or appoint the capable civil servant to fill the post instead of appointing personnel from the private sector.

Only those with super specialise skills which are not available in the civil service can be recruited on contract basis for the chief executive officers post. Even then the salary of chief executive officer or secretary-general of ministry should not be higher than that of the minister.

We should not compare too much the salary scheme of the private and public sector. They are many peaks and benefits of which the government servant gets but is not available to the private sector.

Dr.Cheah applauds the government’s move to review the new salary scheme for civil servants (SBPA) after receiving numerous complaints. Cost saving and productivity should be the main thing the government should emphasis on reviewing SBPA.

The willingness of the government to carry out this review indicates sincerity and sensitivity to the plight of the majority of civil servants.