PUTRAJAYA, July 13 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today said that there will be a proposal on the table to improve the civil service salary scheme in stages based on the country’s economic capabilities.
Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, said this will be discussed in a meeting with Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali and Public Service Department director-general Datuk Dr Zulkapli Mohamad before the state elections take place on Aug 12.
“The salaries and allowances of civil servants are still low, I have to acknowledge that after 10 years there has not been a committee chaired by the Prime Minister to review the scheme.
“… (we will look into) our financial capabilities on how we can improve and increase (civil servants’ salary scheme),” he said at the Cakna MADANI programme with enforcement agencies here today.
On July 7, Anwar said the decision to review the salary scheme was made due to the fact that salary adjustments had not been made for civil servants for quite a long time as the last review of the salary scheme was conducted in 2013.
The prime minister gave the assurance that the government will be fair and reasonable to civil servants when reviewing the salary scheme.
Anwar also said the perception that Malaysia has a bloated civil service needs to be corrected, adding that those figures, by right, should not be pooled together with enforcement personnel.
“In Malaysia, the civil service (numbers in total) includes the police, the army and others… in some countries, they are not. We have to correct this from now,” he said.
Meanwhile, Anwar said a delegation from Hong Kong will be visiting the country next week, with the potential of huge investments in Malaysia on the cards.
