THE abolition of the critical service incentive involving 33 service schemes next year is because they no longer meet the criteria, said the Public Service Department (PSD) deputy director-general (development).

Suhaime Mahbar said the allowance was introduced in 1992 to help overcome low recruitment in certain sectors and attract graduates to join the public service.

“Critical here does not mean that the job is difficult, but the difficulty in getting expertise,” he told Bernama.

“For example, there were not many medical graduates back then, so the allowance was introduced to attract them to join the public service.

“But today, we have received 24,756 applications for medical officer posts, exceeding the employment requirement of 15,268.”

Other posts with the number of applicants far higher than vacancies include architects, marine officers, engineers and pilots, he said.

He said ending an allowance is nothing new, and the critical service incentive was supposed to be reviewed every five years to determine its necessity.

Since 1992, he said, 27 allowances have been abolished, merged or rebranded.

“Among them are allowances for good conduct, snake poisoning, special stenographers and accountant encouragement.

“The government always considers an application and reviews all public sector allowances based on certain principles.”

Suhaime did not rule out the possibility of the critical service incentive being reintroduced to attract experts in fields key to the Industrial Revolution 4.0.

On calls for medical officers to continue getting the allowance taking into account their workload, he said many do not know that healthcare workers are eligible for 22 other allowances and facilities based on their tasks.

They include the hospital administration, medical on-call and specialist allowances, he said.

“What needs to be understood is that allowances are not permanent and can be withdrawn according to the current situation. However, many consider the allowances as their absolute right.” – Bernama, December 26, 2019.