Malaysia: Civil service downsizing will only affect vacant positions, says deputy minister

• CIVIL servants are assured of keeping their jobs, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Farid Md Rafik said, as any move to downsize the government administration will only target positions that are not yet filled.
• Such a move will only affect the 6% of jobs that have not yet been filled, he said, noting that 94% of civil service jobs are already occupied. “We should not touch civil servants who are already working with the government,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat.
• Farid was replying to a question by Shamsul Anuar Nasarah (BN-Lenggong) who asked about the number of civil servants to be affected in Putrajaya’s streamlining of the civil service.
• In a supplementary question, Shamsul Anuar also asked if the government had done any studies to assess the social and economic impact if the government were to proceed with reducing the size of the civil service.
• Farid said there were currently 1.7 million positions in the civil service, of which 6% were not filled. He said the total number of posts included federal and state positions, as well as in local councils and state statutory bodies.

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