MALAYSIA
The new head of Malaysia’s Public Service, Dr Ismail Bakar (pictured) says restoring integrity and good governance, adopting best practices and ensuring political neutrality are his priorities.
He said he wants the Public Service to focus on helping the new administration of President, Mahathir Mohamad wipe out corruption and rebuild the country so that it will “grow to become a tiger”.
“For a country to progress and determine its future path, she needs an effective, efficient and well-oiled machinery and that is the Civil Service,” Dr Ismail said.
“If you have that, you have the potential to go further.”
He said if Government officers are ineffective and corrupt, the road to success will be arduous.
Dr Ismail said cooperation from members of the administration as well as Secretaries-General of Ministries was crucial.
He has set a target of a year to complete the task of improving practices in the Public Service.
“There is a new Government in place and, as the backbone of the administration, Civil Servants need to make adjustments,” Dr Ismail said.
He said that while corruption among officers was now under control — with about 200 cases investigated by anti-graft authorities to date this year — the plan was for guidelines and standard operating procedures for good practices to be in place that would help prevent opportunities for PS staff to engage in corruption.
Dr Ismail said that while officers were not being monitored for what they said on social media, they should be mindful when they discussed politics, especially in their official capacity.
Kuala Lumpur, 14 October 2018
