Civil service not as bloated as portrayed: Cuepacs

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian civil service is not as bloated as many had tried to portray it said the Congress of Unions in Public and Civil Services Malaysia (Ceupacs) today.
Its president Datuk Azih Muda (pix) said the service looked huge as the army, police, health and education was lumped with the rest of the service – a practice uncommon to many other developed countries.
This had resulted in the ratio of civil servants against the total country's population being much higher when compared to other nations in the world, Azih explained.
"In other developed countries, they do not count their army, police, health and education services as part of their civil service," he said.
"If we analyse our own civil service, the total number of workers stands at only around 500,000 people if we exclude the aforementioned four services," he said in a press conference at Wisma Ceupacs here.
Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani had reportedly said that Malaysia's civil service is bloated when compared to other nations, at a ratio of one civil servant for every 19.37 people in the country.
Former Finance Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim then called on the government to consider downsizing the 1.6 million people currently in the service, allowing the country to save money.
To this, Azih said such comment should not come from Mohd Sheriff as he had benefited much during his time in the civil service and was now enjoying a government's pension.
"We are calling on the prime minister to ignore such a call (by Mohd Sheriff) as it could spark dissatisfaction among civil servants," he said.