Wednesday, June 11, 2008

OK to moonlight?

The Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Senator Tan Sri Amirsham Abdul Aziz has said civil servants can take up part-time weekend jobs or businesses to supplement their income in view of the rising cost of living. He said the government was encouraging all Malaysians to work harder during weekends. We are sure Amirsham is simply trying to help civil servants ease their financial burden. Already many government servants including police constables are working as taxi drivers, pasar malam traders or bodyguards. They are just earning an honest living to supplement their income. No one can fault what they are doing. But Amirsham need to come up with some guidelines. He should not open the floodgates where there would be a conflict of interest. Council workers at certain departments, for example, shouldn't be working for property developers. Land office officials should not be engaged by lawyers and those related to their work. The 10% cut in the ministers' entertainment allowances is merely symbolic. What we need to do is to focus on improving efficiency and productivity. Saving money but not earning money for the country does not help to save the economy. We have talked so much about the tender system but nothing has been carried out. Not even in the Pakatan-run states. The tender system will allow Malaysians to stop wastage and curb corruption. Taxpayers should not be burderned with over-priced projects. Or projects that have little economic value in return. Does Malacca really need a RM40million ferris wheel? The Eye will be moved from Taman Tasik Titiwangsa to Malacca's Kota Laksamana. The state has projected 700,000 tourists a year but not many are convinced that it is viable. Let's hope it won't become a Black Eye Over Malacca. Let's be serious if we want to have prudent management.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Something is not right with our govt. You increase the petrol since 2006 but you don't provide alternative. egs
1) Try catching LRT at Tasik Aman onwards at a.m. peak hours. You only see frustrated and obedient citizens lining up but can't get in. The cost of adding extra coaches is no way near compare to embarking on double tracking.
2) Try catching KTM Komuter. It's never on time. Takes more than 1hr to go fr P.Klg to KL Sentral. Why can't the govt get rid of dead woods. In other countries, you designate certain station eg Shah Alam with bigger carparks for express ride during peak hours. Why can't they just do that ?
3) Projects to solve traffic jam eg in Klang and Serdang Raya. Since it's causing more congestion during construction, you would have thought that working around the clock to complete it asap would save the govt from wastage of fuel subsidy and also improve productivity and reduce stress on the motorists.
4) Pandan Interchange at MRR2 - 3 lanes converge into 2. For years since it's opening, the jam can start from Sri Petaling (end of Kesas H'way). Why can't they solve this problem ? Billions of petrol subsidy has been wasted but nothing is done.
5) What about those hundreds of RapidKL buses sitting in Rawang yard ? It's taxpayer's money, why arent serving the taxpayers. Just look the passengers in the buses, they are sardine packed. Think about the elderly, children and women in the buses.

The bailout of PKFZ of RM4.6b if used to address the above issues (with plenty balance to solve other issues) will save the taxpayers from wastages of fuel subsidy because of traffic jam.

So before the govt can ask us the taxpayers to change, they have to get their act together and provide proper and efficient public transportation.

If BN dont start to solve this problem then they deserve to be UBAH with PR.

Anonymous said...

It is OK for employees and students to take on part time jobs. I stayed in the USA for many years, and I fin dit very common for American kids to do part time jobs while they are students. It is also very common for adults to hold an extra part time job. I find that many Malaysian students are lazy in doing part time jobs. And adults too are guilty of that. We should promote the culture for companies to hire students, retirees, or even working adults to do part time jobs to supplement their income. It helps promote a working culture. It is a good exposure for students to what happens in palces of work. It is better than having so many un-skilled foreign workers here, when the same job can be done by our people. Corporations should also encourage this.

Anonymous said...

The only problem with public servants moonlighting is this:
here is nothing wrong with moonlighting EXCEPT that the public servants are always not working during their official office hours!!!!!!! Lepak in the day, then work hard while moonlighting!!! This is malaysia boleh.

Anonymous said...

Why things don't workin malaysia?
It stops at the beginning... Kalau contract is worth 1 billion, then it is procured at 2 billion. 1 billion masuk you know where. Then contractor cut corner and delivers only 0.5 billion worth or work. The person in charge still sign off the work quickly so that he can receive his 1 billion of dirty money. Then when it comes to maintenance, a 100 million budget is given , but maybe only 50 million is used for actual maintenance, and 50million goes somewhere else. Then contractor cut corners again and deliver 25 million worth. Then everything seems to always break down and things don't work. This is malaysia . Rotten to the core.

Anonymous said...

Don't expect the govt to stop spending. Kalau tiada projek, mana dapat 5% atau 10% ? Kalau projek namapk nya bodoh, bukan sebab kerana decision maker bodoh, tetapi sebab nya ada udang di belakang batu. Buat micky mouse sana sini dengan projek sampai projek menjadi bodoh, tetapi who cares? Kalau ada juta juta boleh di dapat, buat lah projek bodoh itu.

Anonymous said...

chun wai
as usual, appreciate if you give credit when its due. dont sully PR just because your paymaster is from the other camp.
just to let you know. one of my friends, a bumiputra businessman just won a open tender for a project in Penang. So,to say generally open tender is not practised in PR state (unless Penang to you is not under PR) is not right.

sinnersaint:saintsinner said...

For All Politicians - BN or Pakatan


“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.”

Albert Pine - Author 1851

Samuel Goh Kim Eng said...

Do more people now need to moonlight
Just to better survive or turn their future bright
When there are still not enough equal opportunities in sight
How then are they going to reach greater height?

(C) Samuel Goh Kim Eng - 120608
http://MotivationInMotion.blogspot.com
Thur. 12th June 2008.

bondoun said...

Our government is tripping themselves over and over again! Hah! what a stupid dork! Allowing civil servant to moonlight amounts to inviting unethical behaviors and corruptions.

Pardon me, but the government shouldn't take out their cost cutting on lower paid civil servants. PM should first show us he is willing to take the brunt of the cost cutting on the upper class of civil servant including his cabinet.

The 10% is only mere smoke screen and joke. PM why don't you take out additional 30% and drop the perks? Only then you convince me about your cost cutting.

Convince your cabinet take vacation locally, and support our tourism industry. It's another way to show international tourists that we are proud of our country.

A KADIR JASIN said...

Sdr Chun Wai;

1. Amirsham is a good friend and was a good banker. So I won't say too much about his surprised Senatorship and Ministerial appointment;

2. Many government servants have been moonlighting "illegally" to supplement their income and to live better;

2. But making it "legal" may cause other problems. Already our civil service standard is falling. Business is not something that you do part time. Soon the concern for business will override full time employment;

3. Suddenly more civil servants will take cuti sakit and all sorts of cutis to manage their businesses. Government services will fall further and the rakyat will suffer even more;

4. The civil servants may even become indebted to alongs and chetties;

5. I want to ask Amirsham, what happens to all those allowances and pay increases that the government has been paying the civil servants to get their support?

6. With the government taking away subsidies and raising prices, tolls and tariffs, there isn't much left for the civil servants to milk by way of their part time business;

7. Sdr Amirsham, even full time businesses like ours are struggling. Maybe you should start looking at NPLs. Even government departments are making all kinds of excuses to delay payment.

8. Sdr, cakap mudah. Berniaga dengan modal orang lain pun mudah. Jadi eksekutif GLC raksasa lagilah mudah. Jadi Menteri apa lagi -- banyak yang percuma. Tetapi cuba guna duit sendiri berniaga macam kami!

Baru tahu bumi tinggi rendah.

Thanks a million.

Anonymous said...

In my workplace, there are many who moonlight. They are not the best workers but they get their gaji with minimal effort and earn lots of money outside the office.
The drag caused by the deadwood in many offices, government and private, has never been addressed so once again when we talk about efficiency, it is always the efficient who have to suffer.

Robert Teh said...

Chun Wai,

Allow me to comment on the 'symbolic' 10% cut in Ministers' entertainment allowance:

Lim Kit Siang said make it 50%, well, I said make it 90%! Why?

Most times, when a Minister entertains someone or someone entertains a Minister, who picks up the tab? Let's be honest here, I would dare say 9 out of 10 times the person who gets entertained by the Minister or who entertained the Minister, picks up the tab - please someone prove me wrong.

In this country it is a big privilege to get a chance to entertain or get entertained by a Minister. People queue up to get this chance, many (especially businessmen) even have to pay 'bridging' money, to get this chance. I'm sure many of us are familiar with such stories going around.

A 90% cut! Not a paltry 10% cut!

sinnersaint:saintsinner said...

hey, wasnt Amirsham who was caught up in the public furore on legal firms had to be 50% bumi???????? and Maybank had to retract that policy.

I'm sorry, good fren or not of Scribe, in many peoples book he's an Ultra ke ke ke

Basically, salaries do not reflect current times, thats it. Moonlighting has been always there since time in memorial..... so, nothing new ladies and gentle man.... ask business people, they'll tell, yang duduk di office bermaharajalela yang tak tahu....

No brainer la, civil servant have been moonlighting ie MLM, consultancy, kick backs for projects macam macam oooi, Amirsham ketinggalan ZAMAM.

Tick tock Tick Tock early 90s, i think mahathir had some ruling to curb these moonlighting business in civil service.... i remember frens had to buy products to meet Pengarahs, Ministers, MLA or MP, biasanya Secretary la yang Champion lol

jadi Thank you Amirsham for your brilliant idea.

Anonymous said...

Yes , right on! The ministers rarely ever (probably NEVER) have to pay for entertainment. Most or all of the time, somebody else got to foot the bill to see the ministers. It's wither the cronies, the businessmen, etc who pay for the entertainment, hoping to rub shoulders with the ministers or hoping to get a contract. So I guess most of the "entertainment" budget goes to entertain themselves and their families. Such tricks are very common. Even in the corporate world, if a manager goes to a KTV or goes for a massage with their distributors or the end-customers, the distributors pay for the tab. And of course if the manager wants an exotic foreign woman for the night, whether she is Mongollian, Chinese, Black or White, or a trip to Paris, that is why the middleman distributor or consultant will take care of it. So you can draw a parallel of the corporate world to the government world, where the budget gets multiplied many many fold. So yes the entertainment budget should be cut by 90%,or even 100% !

Anonymous said...

What or who is there for the ministers to entertain, except to entertain themselves. In every meeting or event, it is always somebody else paying for the entertainment. Every piece of steak, sushi, or sashimi, and every glass of tea, brandy, whiskey and wine is paid for by somebody else hoping to get a piece of the cake ( I mean contract ) from the minister. So who is the minister entertaining with the "entertainment" budget? Wives, families, and girl friends???