Bloated civil service needs slashing: Khairy
Despite measures already in place to slash the national deficit and pinch pennies for the government coffers, it is still the bloated civil service which has left many to wonder if a prudent economy is achievable.
Rembau MP and Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar admitted that there is an over-inflated civil service with 1.2 million staff and that the government will need to make tough but necessary changes to reduce the numbers.
"But how do you streamline it? The government will have to make some tough choices in the next five or 10 years," he said.
Suggesting some culling measures, he said that the government should look into putting a freeze on new intakes in certain departments.
"You have to also look at how civil servants are rewarded. At the moment, it is not based on productivity, but seniority and length of service," said Khairy, whose late father was a civil servant in Wisma Putra.
"We need to change that so that we can cull the inefficient," he said in a question-and-answer session at a forum on subsidy in Kuala Lumpur last night.
Pemandu a big drain
However, his fellow panelist, political analyst from UCSI Ong Kian Ming, zeroed in on a government agency which he claimed is a massive drain on resources - Pemandu.
"It is part of the civil service which is taking up a lot of money, and it is not even really the civil service!
Pemandu, which stands for Performance, Management and Delivery Unit, was set up last year under the Najib administration as one of the pillars in his Government Transformation Plan.
While its main objectives are to draft policies under the GTP and to monitor its progress, Pemandu staff are from both the public and private sector.
"Their National Key Result Areas labs employ expensive consultants. In a span of two months, just to pay 50 consultants, the government spent RM20 million," he said.
Ong also did not mince his words when he explained why.
"If the civil service is consuming a big budget under the Prime Minister's Department, it is because the other agencies of the civil service are not functioning.
"That's why Najib consolidates everything under his department," he said.
In the recent parliamentary sitting, it was revealed in a written reply by a minister that the number of civil servants in the Prime Minister's Department have more than doubled from 21,000 to 43,000 this year.
In a stark contrast, the White House only employs 1,888 staff as stated on their website.
The forum is jointly organised by the Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall socio-economic committee and www.akademimerdeka.org.
Rembau MP and Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar admitted that there is an over-inflated civil service with 1.2 million staff and that the government will need to make tough but necessary changes to reduce the numbers."But how do you streamline it? The government will have to make some tough choices in the next five or 10 years," he said.
Suggesting some culling measures, he said that the government should look into putting a freeze on new intakes in certain departments.
"You have to also look at how civil servants are rewarded. At the moment, it is not based on productivity, but seniority and length of service," said Khairy, whose late father was a civil servant in Wisma Putra.
"We need to change that so that we can cull the inefficient," he said in a question-and-answer session at a forum on subsidy in Kuala Lumpur last night.
Pemandu a big drain
However, his fellow panelist, political analyst from UCSI Ong Kian Ming, zeroed in on a government agency which he claimed is a massive drain on resources - Pemandu.
"It is part of the civil service which is taking up a lot of money, and it is not even really the civil service!
Pemandu, which stands for Performance, Management and Delivery Unit, was set up last year under the Najib administration as one of the pillars in his Government Transformation Plan.
While its main objectives are to draft policies under the GTP and to monitor its progress, Pemandu staff are from both the public and private sector."Their National Key Result Areas labs employ expensive consultants. In a span of two months, just to pay 50 consultants, the government spent RM20 million," he said.
Ong also did not mince his words when he explained why.
"If the civil service is consuming a big budget under the Prime Minister's Department, it is because the other agencies of the civil service are not functioning.
"That's why Najib consolidates everything under his department," he said.
In the recent parliamentary sitting, it was revealed in a written reply by a minister that the number of civil servants in the Prime Minister's Department have more than doubled from 21,000 to 43,000 this year.
In a stark contrast, the White House only employs 1,888 staff as stated on their website.
The forum is jointly organised by the Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall socio-economic committee and www.akademimerdeka.org.
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