Gomen potong budget, but are they cut in the right areas?

The other day the government announced they would be making 53 drastic cuts in their spending due to current economic challenges. It even made it to front page!

ABOUT FRIKKIN TIME! Right? We’ve been seeing signs that the country so pokai liao that we also did a story on 8 signs we could be running out of cha-ching. Whether those predictions were a bit overdramatic or whether or not they will come true, we can’t ignore that the gomen does spend…A LOT, in the words of the Auditor-General, Opposition and even MCA.

Ok to summarise, some of the things they wanna cut down on are hiring (which they’ve been talking about since last year), paying for overtime, a 30% cut on government-organised events spending and other stuff. For the official full document on all 53 measures titled, ‘Guidelines on Measures to Optimise Govern­ment Spending’, click here.

So let’s talk about 6 of the big potongans they’ll be making.

 

1. No more new positions in civil service

The Government had been talking about freezing hiring in civil service for awhile. From now on, only redeployments and trade-offs are allowed, while no more new positions will be created. So if you were hoping to get employed as, say, a Senior Director of Reloading Printer A4 Paper, don’t bother sending CV. BUTTT for people who studied or have experience in these sectors:

• education
• health
• security
• enforcement
• treasury

…they might still consider hiring IF there’s an absolutely critical need.

Also, any position that’s been an empty nest for more than two years will just be abolished. After all if they didn’t replace the person for that long, it’s probably not an important role anyway.

But will it work onot!?

People always criticise that our civil service is too bloated. In 2009, our civil servants-to-population ratio was the highest in Asia Pacific at 4.68% (1.4 million workers to 27.8 million rakyat), compared to Singapore’s 1.4%, Indonesia’s 1.79%, South Korea’s 1.85% and Thailand’s 2.06%. WAHH all oso less than half our ratio.

Greece, Canada and Italy have been accused of the same problem, although having a bloated public sector might possibly be a good thing depending on the country’s situation. For example, an article by The Globe and Mail wrote that Canada’s bloated civil service is the only one creating jobs for people in this harsh environment and they desperately need it with unemployment spiking at 6.8%.

Playing the same sentiment, the Malaysian gomen defended the bloated civil service because it provides jobs. How scary is the unemployment rate gonna be when they start freezing jobs? There will be a lot more unemployed youths and you know they say an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. So, it’s nice that we used to expect Putrajaya to take care of fresh grads, but at what cost? Spending more money? Fresh grads not learning how to be competitive fighters? You be the judge.

 

2. No more overtime-ing sesuka hati

From now on, civil servants can only work overtime (OT) if their superiors can justify that the work is totally important and has to be done in order to meet the deadline. Written permission must be given by the boss before a worker can be allowed to OT too.

But will it work onot!?

Yaayyy, superiors cannot paksa workers to stay back late anymore and workers oso cannot abuse the system. Got OT abuse meh? Oddly, online searches keep showing foreign worker abuse in Malaysia (tsk tsk shame, shame, Malaysians). But the evidence was put out there by Christoph Mueller (the new MAS CEO guy) when he revealed there was so much OT abuse before he took over, that was the time before MAS got privatized.

Chup, then whaddabout the poor workers who depend on OT to get by? Many lower-ranking civil servants especially, coz the basic salary of a government servant is like RM832 at its lowest… that’s WORSE than foreign workers pay, and those guys get accommodations and sometimes meals by their Malaysian employees summore!

“If their overtime is cut, they may have to resort to second jobs during their off-duty hours and drive taxis or work as security guards. It will be an extra burden.” – Datuk Azih Muda, President of the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (CUEPACS), Malaysian Digest

Oh wait, that’s what Ahmad Maslan suggested #2kerja.

 

3. No more door gifts for gomen events

They wanna cut down the number of events, meetings, seminars and workshops, plus it won’t be held so grand scale anymore, like the Psy party in Penang, remember? Overall, the idea is to cut spending in this area by 30% or more. All events will be held in government-owned buildings, so no need to outsource and pay rent. That means no more flowers or flashy stage for people to drop yellow balloons. Everything will be demure and minimalist.

On top of that, door gifts are no longer allowed to be given out during events. Only books, local handicraft, food products or the agency’s own products are allowed. Erm, we guess that means you’ll get stuff like:

But will it work onot!?

Honestly we can’t think of a downside to cutting cost here. Like why would you need to give out door gifts at a teacher training workshop? It’s not a Sweet 16 party. The Star interviewed a teacher, Aini, 33, who said she supported the move to cut down on trips. There are government servants who are happy with certain spending cuts.

 

4. No more flying First Class

To save cost, civil servants can book their own flight tickets and hotel rooms. They’re supposed to hunt to the cheapest deals through airlines or travel agencies. Applies to both domestic and overseas trips. Back in 2013, the government did something similar when they banned many civil servants from flying business class. But six months later…

Yup, Putrajaya U-turned on the directive when they allowed department heads and high-ranking officials (all those holding Grade 54 positions dan keatas) to fly business class again on official trips.

“The Government will reinstate the privilege as these civil servants are in senior positions and have always been flying business class. After all, they should be entitled to this as they are on official duty.” – a source told The Star

Walao, CILISOS not even allowed to to fly…we only allowed use our boss’ spacious Nissan Elgrand. 😛

But will it work onot!?

Hmm, it’s great for cutting down on spending but if you make the employees do it themselves, won’t they pick the lux option for themselves? Actually it is possible la, Singapore civil workers choose the cheapest one, so if they can find flights cheaper than Singapore Airlines, they will go for that. We found that in this PDF suggestion sent to Singapore’s Public Service Division on how the government can cut waste:

Probably a downside to this would be a drop in morale. But another way to look at it is the benefits of cutting national wastage could boost morale, especially among individuals who are more long-term, macroeconomic-minded ones. They would be more concerned about the future of Malaysia.

Here’s one government servant who got it right:

 

5. No more extra uniforms

Uniformed officials will now only get two sets of uniforms per year, no longer three. And the tailoring allowance is also cut down by one set per year. So who will this affect? That would be PDRM, Bomba, JPJ, customs, armed forces, and all the people in the uniformed services. Aiyo, how if the flers ‘uniforms start to look like Davy Jones?

But will it work onot!?

Ok la, two uniforms PER YEAR is not sooo bad, coz they can look forward to getting new sets every year. Unfortunately if their job is the very dirty, sweaty, rough kind like polis or bomba for instance, then it’s kinda sad, if their uniform kena stained or terkoyak how? When their tailoring quota is used up, does that mean they have to fork out their own cash to repair it? That puts extra strain on their finances.

Let’s look at PDRM’s salary scheme for example. A rank and file cop could take home at least RM1,904 as of 2014, WITH added allowances, reported Assistant Chief Inspector-General of Police Secretariat ACP Datin Asmawati Ahmad. It’s lower than average fresh grad salary of RM2,100 to RM2,500, but after buying basic necessities which could come up to RM300 or more every month leh? On the bright side, they have insurance covered, they got pension and police quarters.

 

6. No more cool entourage for overseas trips

A Minister, Deputy Minister, Secretary-General, or Head of Department can only only bring ONE officer on working trips to countries with Malaysian representative offices, and TWO officers for countries with no rep offices.

Overall, the number of overseas trips will be limited as well. Secretaries-General and HoDs can only travel to approved countries no more than three times a  year. For others it’s only twice a year. Courses abroad will be stopped unless it’s a technical course where there’s no expertise in Malaysia. Only one officer can participate in that only once a year, according to the guidelines.

But will it work onot!?

If you look at some of the government trips overseas, they can be quite trivial la, for example, Ismail Sabri was scheduled to fly to Egypt to attend a graduation for Malaysian students at an institution there. Anyway, it got cancelled after Budget 2016 was reviewed so he asked the Malaysian embassy to represent him instead. But a graduation ceremony?!? Walao tak payah oso nerrmind la. At any rate can send replacement:

“Usually there are many trips abroad but this year we will get our officials overseas to represent us.” – Ismail Sabri, Rural and Regional Development Minister, Malaysiakini

 

Finally!! But aiyo why didn’t cut them a long time ago?

The 53 cost-cutting measures will bring relief to Malaysia’s public funds, so HOORAY. Of course, it needs to be enforced strictly la. No more flip-flopping on promises, like the time they downgraded civil servants to economy flight, then six months later promoted them back to business flight. How to be effective in saving money if you don’t implement long-term?

Another way to make sure they are enforced properly is if the government is transparent about their spending. If all these figures were available publicly on an unblocked 😛 gomen website, the rakyat wouldn’t care less if the site looks as ugly as GeoCities, we’ll be so happy to have it. The gomen can use this as like a progress chart and every time they hit target, they get a gold star! Very motivating wan.

Lastly, for the rakyat out there, in case you’re worried these cuts will make your next IC renewal process slower and the counter staff’s face more sour, Deputy PM Zahid Hamidi promised the machinery will continue to run smoothly. Otherwise *sigh* wait for the next spending cut announcement…? Kidding!