YOURSAY | Trim the civil service and save money

YOURSAY | ‘All this talk about lights and pens is just useless and silly.’

PM reminds civil service to be thrifty

Cogito Ergo Sum: With our coffers so low, what will ensure the optimum utilisation of scarce resources is efficiency and strict adherence to established rules and procedures.

But as one former senior Public Services Department officer said, it’s the quality of the officers hired that has brought down the quality of the civil service.

It’s almost an impossible task for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to undo decades of leakages, inefficient use of resources, and sheer incompetence overnight.

It’s asking for a miracle when miracles have been a scarce resource too.

J70 Jobless 70ty: Many civil servants have so-called godfathers to cater to their requirements.

So they are so used to the tidak apa (don’t care) attitude when spending money.

Take, for example, if only the Malaysian Public Works Department were responsible for the work they designed or supervised, there would be tremendous government savings.

If only a large amount of dug-up asphalt could be recycled and reused, there would be a tremendous amount of savings from the low-quality, frequent road repairs.

We just can’t afford to waste money. That’s why we need to be very thrifty. We’re not given milk but being milked.

But politicians are given the authority, so they can afford to allocate a few millions here and a few billions there.

YOM: Dear prime minister, make sure the ministers, politicians, top government-linked company heads, and government agency officials also spend prudently.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Don’t fly first class. Business class is good enough. Millions can be saved.

2. Cut the budget for state and other functions.

3. Review the types of allowances. Eliminate or reduce non-essentials.

4. Cap salaries of senior government-linked company officials.

These and many other possible savings will amount to millions which can go to alleviate the plight of our poor.

OrangeKucing5562: Anwar, did your ministries or civil service compare their budget to actual monthly spending by expense code and check for overruns on each expense in the same way private companies do? This is the first step.

If not, what cost management is the civil service talking about?

Secondly, did you compare each group’s expenses among ministries?

It is highly necessary to see how other ministries performed in their cost-controlling measures.

It may not be a light-to-light comparison, I know, but there is a guide at least to nail down those ministries that are too far off from reasonableness.

If these are not done, how can you implement anything concerning cost control in the civil service?

BluePanther4725: The civil servants enjoy so many benefits all paid for by the taxpayers’ money.

However, many civil servants don’t do their jobs properly or serve the people well. They are like a bunch of parasites that will suck people and the country dry.

The government must reform our civil service, or it will bring down our country one day.

World Citizen: Cut the civil service by 50 percent and then we will talk. All this talk about lights and pens is just useless and silly.

The nation is facing labour shortages in many sectors of the economy and displaced government workers can be used by these sectors. Get real Anwar.

All previous prime ministers have just been useless and never addressed this problem. See if you can or want to do something.

TTC: There is an overriding principle of “optimising inflow sources while minimising the outflow of waste.”

Minimising expenditure alone may not necessarily work without enhancing inflow or income.

The civil service should be more productive and proactive to support delivery and economic growth to improve the country’s economy and the growth of businesses in private enterprises.

Air10: Malaysia has one of the most bloated civil services in the world. Out of every 19 Malaysians, one is a civil servant.

When you have too many workers and nothing much to do, productivity dips!

The government seriously needs to cut the bloated service by at least 80 percent to reduce wastage.

Vent: Guess Anwar knows the root of all waste leakage. Call it what you will, but it is due to insouciant civil servants with their lack of productivity.

Yet their salaries are constantly upgraded and they continue to receive bloated pensions. They will be the economic ruin of this nation.

Throw corruption and subsidies into the mix as well.

YellowFalcon7173: Civil servants have to be thrifty, but you still fly here and there in a helicopter?

Aren’t the prime minister and ministers civil servants?

Stop talking about pens and stuff, get to the meat of the matter - rampant corrupt practices.

Are you brave enough to weed out the big fishes?

Sparrow: Like the younger generation would say, “Ah Kong’s money” (grandfather’s money) because they have always been coddled and not made to foot the bill.

Why is the government giving so many handouts to various groups?

ScarletSalmon7580: Why then does the government want to replace one-plus-year-old cars with new luxury electric vehicle (EV) cars for ministers, as rightfully questioned by Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman?

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