PAKATAN Harapan wishes to restructure, not retrench the civil service, says PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli today, in response to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s warning that the opposition will order massive lay-offs in the public sector upon seizing Putrajaya.
 
Najib on Tuesday told a gathering with 5,000 civil servants that half of them would get the axe if PH were to take over the administration of the country.

Rafizi today said the problem was not the civil servant to population ratio, which at 19:1 was the highest in the world.

“The problem is too many civil servants, who are paid by taxpayers, are not working for the people but are instead working for politicians who are ministers or heading certain government bodies through political appointments,” said the Pandan MP.
 
Rafizi said the there were currently 607 staff for the 33 ministers, with the prime minister and his wife taking the lion’s share of 200.
 
“PH will reduce the numbers of ministers to only 20 through restructuring of the ministries to ensure there are no overlaps. This will in turn reduce the pay and also the number of civil servants allocated to the ministers,” he said.
 
He said PH would also reduce the number of civil servants, whether political appointees or in the service, for ministers and deputy ministers.
 
“I believe the staff for the prime minister ought to be reduced to 70 from the current 200 while the deputy prime minister should have only 30 staff instead of 77.
 
“As for the ministers, they should get six each instead of the average 10 staff now.”
 
The surplus staff would be reassigned to new duties, Rafizi said.
 
“The new assignments will have interaction with the people directly,” said Rafizi, adding the same principles would be applied restructure the employees chart in the civil service to end misapplication of human resources due to political intervention.
 
He said he would present a numbers breakdown to demonstrate how a redistribution of human resources would optimise the workforce.
 
“I am sure most civil servants are aware of what is happening and agree with me.
 
“In the weeks to come, I will also show that there is a reduction of monetary and service benefits to the civil service under Najib’s administration,” said Rafizi. – October 5, 2017.