PETALING JAYA: MALAYSIA’S 1.6 million-strong civil service must be trimmed for the country to improve its productivity, said Malaysia Productivity Corporation director-general Datuk Mohd Razali Hussain.
“It makes sense to have a lean civil service as it will lead to an improvement in processes and efficiency. It will add more value too,” he said at a media briefing to share the methodology and highlights of the Doing Business Report 2017 ahead of the World Bank’s release yesterday.
Last year, Malaysia was ranked 18th among 189 economies, compared with 17th in 2014.
The 11th Malaysia Plan has earmarked productivity as the game changer to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth.
Industry productivity remained strong as shown in key sectors such as manufacturing, construction and services.
With a big civil service, this has led to higher expenditure as wages account for about one-third of the allocation for operating expenditure.
The 2017 Budget showed that operating expenditure continued to remain high and the government had proposed RM214.8 billion from RM207.1 billion this year.
The bulk, which totalled RM77.4 billion, goes to emoluments and RM32 billion for supplies and services.
In a post-2017 Budget dialogue session held in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, Deutsche Bank economist Diana Rose del Rosario said Malaysia held the highest ratio of civil servants to population in the region.
There are 5.1 civil servants per 100 population in Malaysia compared with Singapore (2.6), Thailand (2.4) Philippines (2.1) and Indonesia (1.7), the Singapore-based research house said.
Razali said description of civil service could vary between countries as some excluded certain ministries from the description.
Del Rosario said although the government had reduced spending on emoluments from 10 per cent during the 2010-2014 period to five per cent in 2016 and 2017, there remained room to cut more as there was the worry of a bigger pension budget.
She said there was a need to have a lean and efficient public service if Malaysia wanted to succeed in its fiscal consolidation path.
Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah was concerned about the mindset of the civil service, which needed a change for the government to continue its fiscal consolidation towards a balanced budget by 2020.
Ministry staff, he said, should cut lavish spending instead of essential ones, which affected the public sector delivery.