More than 28,000 civil servants yet to take Covid shots — Minister

KUALA LUMPUR: About 1.8 per cent of civil servants have yet to be vaccinated against Covid-19 despite a mandate issued by the Public Service Department (JPA), the Dewan Rakyat was told yesterday morning.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Special Functions) Datuk Abdul Latiff Ahmad added that no disciplinary action has been taken against the unvaccinated individuals.

“According to data from Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC), those who are still refusing or are not yet vaccinated is around 1.8 per cent from the 1.6 million civil servants.

“And today, Nov 10, 10 days after the mandate was issued, no disciplinary actions have been taken,” he said during Question Time.

The 1.8 per cent of 1.6 million in the public sector translates to around 28,800 people.

Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin then asked the minister what would be the appropriate punishment for refusing vaccination.

Abdul Latiff replied that due process requires that the department heads first issue a show-cause letter to the unvaccinated staff. “Upon being issued the showcause letter, the civil servant then has 21 days to answer, and if the reasons given are not satisfactory, only then will the issue be referred to the Domestic Enquiry Committee and Disciplinary Committee for the next course of action,” he explained.

Abdul Latiff affirmed that there are at least seven different punishments for civil servants who refuse the vaccine, but stressed that the due processes must be observed.

“Yes, there are many types of actions that we can take against these civil servants, like issuing a warning, reprimanding, withholding their promotion, or their salaries, but most importantly, the due process of justice must be done properly,” he said.

Abdul Latiff said the vaccine mandate issued to all civil servants on November 1 was intended to prevent any disruption of public sector services.

“That is the reason the Cabinet enforced the vaccine mandate on all public servants, to ensure that the delivery of services from the public sector is not affected,” he added.