PUTRAJAYA: The various incentives for civil servants as announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the 2018 Budget will motivate them to work even harder to improve the service delivery to the people.
Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa said it was important for 1.6 million civil servants to carry out programmes and projects under the 2018 Budget immediately and smoothly.
“The 2018 Budget reflects the government’s concern about the welfare of the civil servants. So now it is time for them to perform and serve for the people.
“This will be a key performance index for all director-general at all government departments and agencies and I will monitor the implementation of the projects under the 2018 Budget.
“I hope the incentives will increase their motivation at work. I want the public servants to have a spirit when implementing the projects and treat them like their own project. Just like building your own house, of course you don’t want any problem,” he said after attending the Pink October Run programme at Dataran Putrajaya, here, today.
Ali also urged civil servants to be sincere and committed in carrying out the projects.
“Be it the development of schools, hospitals, clinics and others, it should be done genuinely and professionally. The relevant parties should also monitor the projects,” he added.
Among the incentives for the civil servants tabled in the 2018 Budget include second-time promotion for civil servants; flexible working hours for medical specialists; unrecorded leave days for those who want to perform umrah and the lowest pension rate will be increased to RM1,000 a month for those working for more than 25 years.
Civil servants will also receive special payments of RM1,500, which would be disbursed twice - RM1,500 in January 2018 and RM500 before Hari Raya Aidilfitri next year.
Najib also announced the new working hours from 9am to 6pm to provide further provide flexibility to public servants.
Commenting this, Ali said it was up to the public servants to choose their working hours.
“The introduction of the new working hours is a good news for the public servants especially parents as they need to manage their children in the morning like sending them to schools. So they can choose if they want to start working at 9am,”
“However, there are a certain services that required them to clock in early such as hospitals. Maybe there is a requirement for them to work on shift. So it depends on the service and department they work for,” he said.