PUTRAJAYA: Department heads and other civil servants who fail to report incidents of corruption will be penalised under new changes to the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) evaluation, says the Chief Secretary to the Government.Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar said this would be part of a new requirement under the annual KPI exercise aimed at raising integrity and accountability among civil servants.
“For this, the KPI through the MyPerformance system needs to be improved, as well as for the Demerit Performance Evaluation System (DEEP) for department heads, with emphasis on the new element for failure to report corruption cases,” he said at the 2024 KSN Leadership Aspiration ceremony held here yesterday.
These were among the reforms announced by Shamsul Azri, who took over as Chief Secretary last month, in a special address to civil servants themed ‘Public Service Reform’.
He noted the increase in the number of arrests involving civil servants by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), revealing that up to August, there were a total of 408 such cases.
“This is an increase compared to the 318 arrests over the same period last year,” he said.
To ensure that the country’s position in the global corruption perception index (CPI) continued to improve, he said he would personally chair a special task force on CPI to monitor initiatives under the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS).
Shamsul Azri also said outdated processes, working in silo and being “little Napoleans” must end in order to reform the civil service.
“There is no denying that there are still ‘little Napoleons’ within government organisations,” he said. (Little Napoleon is a term often used to describe individuals in civil service or government who exhibit authoritarian and controlling behaviour.)
The Chief Secretary said these negative elements stemmed from a sense of superiority felt by certain agencies and personnel who believed that they had absolute authority.
“This silo mentality and bureaucracy is still strong and has taken root in some agencies,” he said, adding that such attitudes led to delays in approvals and completion of projects.
Pledging to continue with surprise visits to frontline government departments, he said reports from the Public Complaints Bureau showed that most complaints were about departments failing to meet client expectations, poor facilities and issues linked to enforcement.
“As with my recent surprise visit to the Road Transport Department (JPJ) counters in Putrajaya, I will continue with it nationwide. This will be done without the involvement of senior officers,” he added.
On Sept 2, Shamsul Azri directed the Putrajaya JPJ to improve its waiting time for customers including improving the waiting area after seeing broken chairs and a lack of fans.
He also suggested that the Negaraku be played weekly in all ministries to instil a greater sense of patriotism among civil servants.
“I will request the National Unity Ministry to fine-tune the matter so that a directive on instilling a patriotic culture among civil servants can be issued immediately,” he added.
Shamsul Azri also announced that federal statutory bodies, government-linked companies and related entities would be subject to a rationalisation programme to ensure optimum output.
