SSM panel set to work soon

Flaws in salary scheme to be addressed

GEORGE TOWN: The commission set up to improve the Malaysia Remuneration System salary scheme for civil servants is expected to start work next month once the Government decides on the composition of the board members.

“The new and improved scheme is expected to address (what) is lacking in the current Malaysia Remuneration System (SSM) scheme as well as the recently scrapped Public Service New Remuneration scheme (SBPA),” Cuepacs president Datuk Omar Osman said.

Among the issues raised in SBPA were the value of the maximum salary and the vast difference in the pay hikes between high-ranking officials and those at the bottom.

Omar said the congress hoped the revamped salary scheme would be well received by civil servants once the adjustments to the current SSM scheme were made.

He was speaking to reporters after meeting some 1,000 civil servants in Penang on the latest development of the salary scheme at Universiti Sains Malaysia yesterday.

On March 8, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced the cancellation of SBPA and retention of the SSM with improvements.

SBPA was aimed at transforming the civil service to be dynamic, responsive and focused on excellence through radical changes in recruitment, postings and promotions.

It was meant to be a flexible reward system to retain the best brains and remove the laggards through an “exit policy”.

However, it raised the ire of the 1.4 millionstrong civil service as it would have only benefited top government servants, leaving the rest with paltry salary hikes.