Experienced civil servants to fill vacancies

PRIORITY will be given to experienced government servants to fill vacancies in the civil service, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal.

He said the government would now give priority to longterm contract staff of certain departments or agencies to be absorbed in permanent positions, should the positions be vacant.

"Alternatively, we will reshuffle the state civil service and reassign staff from departments that have excessive number of staff.

Replying to a supplementary question from Datuk Isnin Aliasnih (Bersatu-Klias) on how the government can help long service contract workers and whether they can be absorbed into the state government as permanent staff, the Chief Minister said it was the government's policy to do so.

"We manage the work force efficiently as employing more staff will increase the emoluments paid by the state government," he said.

Shafie said the Sabah government spends almost RM1 billion annually on emoluments which is the highest in Malaysia.

He said that in facing economic challenges and due to financial constraints, the government had taken several steps to reduce expenditure.

It is therefore important to ensure that the civil service is not only effective but also high in productivity, he said, adding that there are 25,000 posts in Sabah's civil service but only 21,000 are filled.

"If there is need, we will fill in the remaining 4,000 vacancies; if not we will reshuffle the staff from departments with excessive staff," he said.

Priorty will be given to these employees as they have the experience, Shafie said, adding that as the vacancies are usually advertised, sometimes a new applicant get it.

Earlier, Shafie said that although there has been a 6.48 per cent staff reduction in the civil service from 2015 to 2019, it has not affected the current work force and its production.

The government ensures that the civil service will deliver the best to the rakyat, he said.