LIM Guan Eng today reminded Finance Ministry staff on the importance of having a strong working relationship with other ministries and three top civil service officials. 

“The ministry should have good relations with other ministries, especially the chief secretary to the government, the Public Service Department director-general and the treasury secretary-general because the three are the pillars for the 1.6 million civil servants,” the finance minister said at the ministry’s monthly assembly in Putrajaya today. 

Expressing confidence in the leadership of newly appointed chief secretary, Mohd Zuki Ali, Public Service Department director-general Mohd Khairul Adib Abd Rahman and Treasury secretary-general Ahmad Badri Mohd Zahir, Lim hoped that the three will not only contribute to the ministry but also to the entire civil service. 

He also reminded ministry staff to work as a team and not in silo. 

“We are also lucky that the administration has been smooth sailing with no problems in the last 20 months,” he said. 

“This is something I am grateful for. If there is a problem within a family, how can we resolve the country’s problems?” he asked. 

On a separate note, Lim also reminded the staff that the allocation for Budget 2020 initiatives should be spent within this year, as there have been delays in the distribution of last year’s allocation. 

Lim said at a press conference after the event that the allocations were channelled to the ministries in January but the agencies had only received their share in May. 

This has led to tenders being called out later in the year, resulting in programmes being delayed.

“This should not be repeated. It is an internal operational problem which has been resolved by the chief secretary of the government and treasury secretary-general,” he said. 

“This was not supposed to happen but it has happened. We had a meeting for Budget 2020 to ensure all programmes are conducted this year,” he added. 

The delays have left ministries with a “double-barrel” allocation with the remainder from last year and fresh allocations from this year. 

With more to spend and the waning impacts of the US-China trade war, he said the economy is poised for a better footing this year. 

He said the foreign portfolio inflow recorded last year, which was said to be the highest since 2013, is also a good sign. 

According to SG-UOB Global Economics and Markets Research, Malaysia saw a foreign portfolio inflow of RM8.8 billion in 2019 compared to the total foreign portfolio outflows of RM33.6 billion in 2018. 

Malaysian debt securities were the sole contributor to the overall foreign portfolio inflows last year at RM19.9 billion, offsetting the foreign outflows from the Malaysian equity market amounting to RM11 billion. – January 10, 2020.