PUTRAJAYA: Some 40,000 civil servants, who opted for the Employees’ Provident Fund previously, can now revert back to the pension scheme. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said these civil servants could exercise their option to revert back to the pension scheme between Jan 1 and 31.“Their decision will take effect from Feb 1, and they will be able to enjoy all the facililties currently entitled to pensioners, such as free medical treatment. “Parents of civil servants, who have passed away and were single at that time, will also receive ex-gratia payments. “These are some of the decisions that were made following a recent meeting by the Cabinet committee on appointment and salaries for civil servants,” he said in his speech before presenting Public Sector Quality Awards at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre on Thursday.
Other decisions taken by the committee included upgrading the salary schemes for investigating officers under the Anti-Corruption Agency and for senior, low-ranking officers and constables in the police force, and a 20% increase in pay for maritime officers, said Abdullah. “All these decisions will be effective from Jan 1,” he said, adding that the Government would work out the actual amount of financial allocation involved in the upgrading and salary increase later. Cuepacs president Omar Osman had complained last week that civil servants who opted for EPF did not enjoy benefits such as free medical treatment in government hospitals and gratuity payments upon their retirement.
Earlier, Abdullah said he was glad to note that the number of complaints involving public delivery of services had reduced from his dialogues with various business and non-governmental groups. “In the World Competitiveness Yearbook report for this year, Malaysia has managed to improve its ranking from 23rd last year to 19th this year. For the category of countries with more than 20mil population, we have also moved one place from the 8th ranking to the 7th this year.“Efforts to enhance our online access for government services have begun to bear fruit. Under an analysis by the Brown University in United States, Malaysia’s online government services have improved from 25th place last year to 11th place,” he said, adding that the civil service should be proud of their achievement.
However, Abdullah said award-winning government departments should ensure that they continued to maintain and improve on their standards.“Selection of winners must be made according to high standards so that their win will not be disputed by anybody, which can then erode the public confidence in our awards,” he said.Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) won the Prime Minister’s Award for Quality at the event.
Tiada ulasan:
Catat Ulasan