The mill must get by going in all Malaysian government departments

We would like to remind the Malaysian Government that it is not enough to give cost of living allowance, bonus and assistance to civil servants,it is also necessary to improve the delivery system.

The Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi repeated his intention to make the delivery system better. Virtually all government departments have sworn to Customers' Charter for several years. But attitude and efficiency have not changed much.

Comment by Dr Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong on an aspect of the 2006 Federal Budget, presented by Datuk Seri Abdullah on 30 September, 2005.

At 4.00 PM today, Abdullah outlined the RM136.7 billion budget. There are positive and negative proposals.For instance, the combined allocations for the Ministries of Education and Higher Education total RM26.7 billion, that is 20% of the budget. This is encouraging. A negative aspect is the relative lack of measures for the revamp of the much vaunted delivery system.

The Finance Minister offers cost of living allowance to civil servants, from Grade 1 to Grade 54, such as RM150 a month for those working in Kuala Lumpur starting from 1 January, 2006. The existing allowances will be extended, like RM300 a month for the Fixed Public Service Allowance and RM750 a month for supervicing Koran class. For a civil servant who strives to achieve national objectives, there is bonus for 2005. A staff member with a monthly income of RM1,000 is given a bonus of one and a half months.

Over one million government workers need decent wages and allowances. Besides these incentives, the Government must review the weaknesses that exist such as lack of efficiency, bureaucracy and corruption.There must be more efforts to improve the delivery system.