‘Better for government to reduce civil service now than later’

Former Treasury secretary- general Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim has suggested that the government cut down the number of civil servants, which ranks highest in the world relative to the country’s population, while it still can afford it.

Mohd Sheriff told an economic governance forum in Bank Negara yesterday that retrenching civil servants now would be a kinder approach as it would allow them to be compensated fairly, reported Malaysiakini.

“I would say, although it may cost the government heavy expenditure to retrench ( civil servants), it is worthwhile to do it now when we can still afford it, rather than waiting until we are forced into a fi nancial crisis like what happened in Greece,” he said, citing the European nation which abruptly cut down its civil service to reduce its operations expenditure when it was hit hard economically.

He said the country’s bloated civil service has created inefficiencies in the economy and failures in the fi nancial disciplines of ministries and government departments.

Mohd Sheriff also, in a jest, said Malaysia should emulate US President Donald Trump in downsizing its civil service.

“Since al l ( our) previous attempts to downsize (the civil service) had not succeeded, maybe we should follow Donald Trump, who had said he wants to reduce the size of the civil service in Washington, which was creating too much bureaucracy, crippling the economy and burdening the federal budget.

“There was an instruction from Trump that for every new department or agency created, two must be closed down.

“I think i f we adopt this instruction clearly, it will make ministries think twice before they come to the Public Services Department,” he said.

On Feb 1, The Borneo Post reported the concern expressed by Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani that the bloated civil service of 1.6 million has caused government expenditure to rise yearly, leading to the escalating drop in revenue.

“When I first entered the Cabinet, the country was facing a variety of dilemmas — floating oil prices led to reduced government revenue, ringgit devaluation, high living costs and political controversies — which have made my work more challenging.

“One of the issues that we have to address is the ever-increasing government operating costs and expenses.

“For example, we have about 1.6 million civil servants, which is the world’s largest proportion of civil service,” Johari said.

Based on the country’s current population of 31 million people, he said the ratio is one civil servant to 19.37 people.

According to reports, the proportion of civil servants to the national population in other countries such as Singapore is 1 to 71.4 people; Indonesia 1:110; Korea 1: 50, China 1: 108, Japan 1: 28, Russia 1: 84 and United Kingdom 1:118.

However, Johari asserted that the government had no plans to reduce the number of civil servants. Following the report, CIMB Group chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Nazir Tun Razak said an urgent solution has to be found to address the country’s bloated civil service to ensure that future generations do not struggle with bills.

Mohd Sheriff served as secretarygeneral of the Treasury between 1991 and 1994, and was later the managing director of Khazanah Nasional Berhad for nine years. He now sits on the boards of Plus Malaysia Berhad, Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad and Scientex Berhad.