PUTRAJAYA: The abolishing of the Critical Service Incentive Payment (BIPK) will only affect civil servants who are appointed from January 1, 2020.
The Public Service Department (PSD) in a statement today said, those who have been receiving the BIPK would not be affected and would continue to enjoy the critical allowance according to the rates set out in Service Circular No 17 of 2007, until they leave the service.
"As for officers serving on contract, should the contract expires and they are re-appointed through a new agreement to provide continuous, uninterrupted service, they will still be entitled to the BIPK throughout the term,” it said.
The statement was issued after several questions were raised over the decision to abolish the PIBK on social media, following the announcement on a PSD circular issued last Friday.
The PSD explained that although several allowances including the BIPK have been abolished, it would continue review the allowances from time to time.
According to the PSD, the BIPK came about when the New Remuneration System (SSB) was introduced in 1992, where in principle, the critical level of a service would change according to situation and requirements, based on supply and demand for the service, in the current market.
"This means that a critical service can turn out to be less critical and vice versa. For this reason, continuous review and evaluation are essential in implementing critical service schemes," it said.
In line with the SSB report too, the PSD said the BIPK should be reviewed every five years to determine the necessity of the allowance for the critical service schemes.
"In principle, the BIPK allocation is not permanent and can be withdrawn when the relevant service schemes are no longer critical," it said.
The PSD added that since its implementation, 27 years ago, only three reviews of the BIPK were conducted which were in 1997, 2001 and 2007.
In a recent study conducted in 2019 it was found that all 33 service schemes allocated with the BIPK allowance no longer fulfil the original criteria for provision of the BIPK, in that candidates for the position are in short supply and there are difficulties in filling the vacancies.
As such the PSD hoped that with this explanation, civil service personnel would have a better understanding on the BIPK entitlement and would continue to give their best service to the people. -- Bernama