KUALA LUMPUR: The government will not terminate the services of its civil servants in the near future. It will only slash positions that are currently unfilled.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Md Farid Md Rafik (pix) said while there are currently 1.7 million jobs offered under the civil service, only 94% (about 1.6 million) of these positions are filled.
He said the government would maximise the productivity of the current force and optimise its service delivery to cover for the vacant positions.
“When we said we want to reduce the size of our bloated civil service in stages, it only involves positions that are currently vacated.
“We will not target our current civil servants who are already working in the force,” he told the Dewan Rakyat, here, today.
Md Farid was responding to a question from Datuk Dr. Shamsul Anuar bin Nasarah on whether the proposed downsizing of the force would impact those whose services would be terminated, as well as the country’s economy.
The minister in charge of national unity and social well-being explained that the 1.6 million civil servants currently employed comprise those from the federal and state civil service and statutory bodies, as well as those working for the local governments.
Moving forward, Md Farid said attention would be given to increasing productivity and optimising current resources, while giving assurance that the transition to a slimmer civil service in the future would not affect the administration of the country.
“We are in the process of restructuring the number of civil servants in our force based on our economic situation and technological development.
“Among other things, we are looking at the current overlapping of functions between agencies, rationalising current positions, optimising our manpower, outsourcing of functions, privatisation, and filling vacancies based only on needs,” he said.
