Majority number of civil servants from Kelantan, says Ali Hamsa

KOTA BHARU: The majority of civil servants including senior officers from the Public Service Department are from Kelantan, said Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa.
"During the intake, we never stated any criteria on their (civil servant) state of origin. But incidentally, 12.6% or nearly 156,000 of them are from Kelantan.
"In terms of top officials in the civil service, like secretaries-general and directors-general, 17% are from Kelantan," he said when met at a Federal and Kelantan state civil servants event here, today.
The regent of Kelantan Dr Muhammad Faiz Petra officiated the event. Also present was the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Secretary-General Tan Sri Dr Sharifah Zarah Syed Ahmad.
He said besides Kelantan, Perak also produced many senior Federal officials and both states dominated the current senior officer's chart.
Meanwhile, in his speech, Ali said as the 'people of Kelantan are everywhere', Kelantan has not been forgotten but has become an important state in national development as well as the development plans of the Federal government since Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak became prime minister in 2009.
"This can be seen through various Federal government projects implemented in Kelantan. For the period 2013 to 2017, 447 projects worth RM2.65 billion have been implemented in the state.
"For example, 7,914 units of 1Malaysia Civil Servants Housing were approved in Kelantan, while 2,662 units were under construction and 5,197 units in various levels of approval for construction.
"In Bachok (alone), 55 units of PPA1M houses have been completed, PPA1M houses are sold lower than the market price, ranging from RM150,000 to RM300,000 per unit, as part of the construction cost is borne by the Federal Government," he said.
He said under the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) programme, Rural Transformation Centres (RTC) and Urban Transformation Centres (UTC) were established in Kelantan with Kota Bharu RTC being the most successful of the 11 RTCs nationwide.
Among other Federal government projects were the 600km East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project connecting Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Selangor which is expected to be completed by 2024, he said. — Bernama