Majlis Sambutan AidilFitri INTAN Wilayah Utara 2013

Majlis Sambutan Hari Raya Aidilfitri telah diadakan di INTAN Wilayah Utara pada 29 Ogos 2013. Majlis ini turut dihadiri oleh agensi-agensi daerah Kuala Muda.

PROGRAM TRANSFORMASI JADIKAN JPA LEBIH KREATIF DAN INOVATIF - KSN

PUTRAJAYA, 23 Ogos (Bernama) -- Program transformasi yang dilaksanakan oleh Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA), berupaya menjadikan agensi itu lebih kreatif dan berinovatif, kata Ketua Setiausaha Negara Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa. 

Katanya JPA menjadi agensi pertama yang menyiapkan program transformasi dan langkah itu sekali gus dapat mengurangkan kerenah birokrasi yang sering dikaitkan dengan perkhidmatan awam. 

"Tahniah dan terima kasih kepada ketua pengarah JPA, pengurusan tertinggi, pegawai dan semua kakitangan kerana telah berjaya menghasilkan program transformasi yang amat dinamik," katanya kepada pemberita di sini Jumaat. 

Beliau sebelum itu menghadiri majlis sambutan Aidilfitri yang dianjurkan dengan kerjasama semua kementerian dan jabatan kerajaan di Kompleks C di sini, antaranya JPA, Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam dan Jabatan Perangkaan. 

Ali berkata lebih membanggakan kejayaan itu dilakukan secara dalaman tanpa menggunakan konsultan luar, sekali gus mempamerkan kemampuan penjawat awam dalam menghasilkan sebuah program transformasi. 

"Kejayaan itu akan menjadikan JPA sebagai penanda aras kepada program transformasi dan berharap semua agensi dan kementerian lain di seluruh negara akan mengikuti jejak langkah sama," katanya. 

Ali berkata beliau difahamkan program transformasi Kementerian Kewangan kini dalam peringkat kajian dan akan dilaksanakan dalam waktu terdekat. 

BERNAMA ONLINE

PELANTIKAN ANAK MOHAMED NAZRI TIADA HUBUNGAN KAIT DENGAN PERKHIDMATAN AWAM - KSN

PUTRAJAYA, 23 Ogos (Bernama) -- Pelantikan anak Menteri Pelancongan dan Kebudayaan Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz sebagai pegawai khas, tidak mempunyai hubung kait dengan perkhidmatan awam. 

Ketua Setiausaha Negara Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa berkata pelantikan yang dibuat itu tidak melalui struktur pentadbiran Kementerian Pelancongan. 

"Sebaliknya ia adalah 'arrangement' yang berasingan dan kita tidak luluskan apa-apa pelantikan seperti itu... ia hanyalah jawatan dalam struktur politik," katanya ketika ditemui pemberita pada majlis sambutan Hari Raya Aidilfitri kementerian dan jabatan kerajaan di sini Jumaat. 

Beliau diminta mengulas mengenai isu Mohamed Nazri yang didakwa mengambil anaknya Muhammad Nedim sebagai pegawai khas di kementeriannya. 

Mohamed Nazri sebelum ini menjelaskan anak lelakinya hanya bertugas dengan beliau untuk berkhidmat kepada golongan muda di kawasan Parlimen Padang Rengas di Perak, pelantikan itu adalah tidak rasmi serta tidak dibayar gaji oleh kerajaan. 

Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak sebelum ini berkata Menteri Kabinet atau Anggota Parlimen boleh menggunakan anggota keluarga mereka sebagai pembantu khas di kawasan parlimen masing-masing. 

BERNAMA ONLINE

Berita@INTURA Julai 2013

Projek Latihan Ogos 2013

Affordable housing plan for civil servants

JOHOR BARU: Civil servants will soon get to enjoy the 1Malaysia Civil Servants Housing (PPA1M), based on the affordable housing scheme built on government land, priced at 20 to 30 per cent lower than the market rate.

"We will look for suitable government-owned lands in other towns, including Johor Baru, for the purpose," he said at a session with civil servants at Pusat Islam, here, yesterday.

The move to launch PPA1M was aimed at helping to overcome the burden of civil servants to buy houses in major towns.

"The prices of affordable houses offered will be in the range of RM150,000 to RM300,000, with built-up area of between 1,000 and 1,500 sq ft, as well as other basic facilities," said Ali.

He hoped it would lighten the burden of civil servants and also serve as an incentive for them to work harder.

On the fate of contract workers in the National Unity and Integration Department under the Rural and Regional Development and Information, Communications and Culture Ministries, totalling nearly 50,000 people, he said the government had agreed to extend their contracts to Dec 31 for another year.

A study will be carried out on their situation by a committee.

Yesterday's session was attended by Johor state secretary Datuk Obet Tawil and about 2,000 civil servants.

Chief Secretary to the Government Datuk Seri Dr Ali Hamsa said a pilot project with 10,000 units of houses would be built in Putrajaya and launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak soon.

NEW STRAITS TIMES

What's the best public sector size?

THE general election is over. At the hustings, the opposition had championed for a smaller government.

The government contends that its size at 1.4 million and with a ratio of one public employee to 20 citizens is an appropriate one. If anything, public-sector size should increase as the population expands.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has cranked again the flywheel of public sector reform with the merger of two education-related ministries. What does all this imply for the role and size of the public sector?

Public-sector size is a function of the role of the state. That role can span from statism, where the state has substantial dominance over the economy and society, to minarchism or minimal statism.

The statist centralised planning of the socialist system, largely prevalent in the now-extinct USSR and whose vestiges are evident in the socialist countries of Cuba and North Korea, requires the state to plan and execute in detail its socio-economic programmes. This will augur for an extended bureaucracy.

At the other extreme, the laissez-faire system requires the government to play a minimal role in the economy. Robert Norzick and the economic luminaries of the Austrian School of economic thought such as Schumpeter and Milton Friedman argue for a "night-watchman" role of the state in the economy. Such a role should, therefore, conduce to a leaner government.

An intermediate system is the mixed-enterprise system. Here, the state has a role in setting the economic direction and facilitating, through loose regulation, the economic growth of the country. This Anglo-Saxon model takes on many shades of statism.

In France and Italy, where state welfarism and state intervention keep the economy afloat, the Anglo-Saxon model takes on a more statist hue. Spain and Greece, that practise the Mediterranean version of the Anglo-Saxon model, target public spending on employment regulation and employee compensation.

As a consequence of such interventions, governments in those countries have become so lumbered with scary public debts and budget deficits that they have dragged the Eurozone into a quagmire.

An even more statist strain of the Anglo-Saxon model is the Nordic model of capitalism. Adopted in various degrees by Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway, the Nordic model advocates extensive welfarism and redistribution of income through expansionary fiscal policy.

A more successful variant of the Anglo-Saxon model is the Rhineland model of social capitalism of Germany. The Rhinelandic approach advocates a supportive role of the state where required. It has been successful in increasing labour productivity amidst wage restraint. That approach has contributed to Germany being the strongest-performing economy in the EU.

China's authoritarian hold on the economy still persists. Notwithstanding, with continued economic liberalisation, China's state capitalism is getting closer to the Anglo-Saxon model.

Malaysia's New Economic Model (NEM) -- and past growth models -- represent the Anglo-Saxon model of a mixed-enterprise system bordering on statism. Together with the government's raison d'etre of improving citizen's access to health, nutrition, energy and education and its intolerance of income disparity, the NEM signals continued government involvement in the economy.

However, such state intervention will not compromise the position of the private sector as the engine of growth. This social capitalism is in line with John Rawls' proposition that public policy must aid the least advantaged in society.

The philosophical underpinnings of the NEM are anchored in norms of justice as they are in sound socio-economic principles and practice. It should, therefore, be the cornerstone of all government interventions in the economy.

That is why the assertion of a putative bloat in the government is rather misplaced. Such an assertion arises from a comparison that is perhaps wrongly made. That comparison is between the public-sector size of governments of a libertarian mould and that of Malaysia.

Malaysia's social capitalism of regulating the open economy to reduce inequalities that competitive markets inexorably create naturally bodes for a bigger government.

With annual emoluments at RM59 billion and comprising a quarter of public expenditure much has been done to check the expansion of the public sector.

Rigorous scrutiny and moratorium on posts creation, abolishment of posts left long vacant or redundant, restructuring for flatter structures and exit policies have eased the pressure on establishment expansion.

Streamlined business processes and e-government have also enabled the government to provide more services with the same or fewer resources.

Community participation in the provision of service delivery as, for example, community policing, has, in some measure, stemmed the pressure creating more jobs. The pooling of human capital and training facilities to fight crime by the police, army and prison authority is another instance of the judicious use of public resources.

More can be done to defuse criticism over the size of government. Some of its workforce concentrated in staff functions, especially at the central agencies, can be redeployed towards improving the delivery of critical public services such as health, education, transportation and security.

Sharing resources through strategic alliances across government can curb recruitment that would otherwise be utilised in a silo fashion.

Enlarging job specifications by merging related posts will not only reduce their numbers but also enhance the productivity and job satisfaction of public employees. Flexible schemes of service that offer human capital mobility across the cross-section of the public service will enlarge the talent pool within the public service. Service improvements thereby should assuage any protestation of a government bloat.

It is technically feasible to right-size the Leviathan. However, the task may not be an easy one. It will require a fundamental review of the role of government.

Prof Datuk Dr John Antony Xavier is with the Graduate School of Business of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

NEW STRAITS TIMES