8/14/2019 TheSun 2009-11-03 Page02 New Reward System for Civil
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newswithout borders2 theSun | TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3 2009
Newreward systemfor civil servants
Muhyiddin: Dont repeatirregularities highlighted by AG
Christmas open house with a difference: RaisChristmas open house
with a difference: Rais
Pharmacists mustbe responsibleGEORGE TOWN: Pharmacistsmust
inform and educate the pub-lic on the effects of over-the-coun-ter
medicine when selling them,Penang health, welfare and caringsociety
committee chairman PheeBoon Poh said yesterday.
He said there were phar-macists who were dispensingmedicine
without letting thebuyers know the side-effects.
The pharmacists should vetthe buyers to ensure they
arelegitimate users of the medicineand are not underaged or
ad-dicted, he said.
Many people do not evenknow the dosage of paracetamol.Some
people take as many aseight tablets a day which can beharmful, he
told a press confer-ence in Komtar to announceHealth Awareness Day
on Nov 8.
Tainted dried fruitsnot sold in MsiaPUTRAJAYA: The Health
Minis-try said yesterday all 18 lead-tainted dried fruits
identifiedby the United States Food andDrug Administration
(USFDA)are not sold in the country.
The ministrys food safetyand quality division director,Nooraini
Datuk Mohd Osman,said data obtained from theFood Safety Information
Sys-tem of Malaysia and checksat entry points showed noneof the 18
products wereimported. The ministry hasacted swiftly by stepping
up
KUALA LUMPUR: It will be a Christmasopen house with a difference
this yearwith the incorporation of communityprogramme, Information,
Communica-tions and Culture Minister Datuk SeriDr Rais Yatim
said.
He said that the programme, whichincludes giving out assistance
to thepoor and the needy, was to inject newelements into the annual
event.
He told reporters after attendingthe ministrys monthly gathering
atthe Craft Complex here yesterday,that his deputies Datuk Joseph
SalangGandum and Heng Seai Kie would betasked with finding new
ideas for the
event, to be held after Dec 25.In another development, Raissaid
the ministry would carry outinformation sessions on the
Personal
Data Protection Act so that the publicwould be able use its
provisions uponenforcement.
The Act will be tabled in the De-wan Rakyat in the near
future.
Upon its passing, the ministry will
have a new member in the familywhich is the Personal Data
ProtectionCommission, he said, adding that theAct would protect
personal data of
individuals and corporate bodies frombeing manipulated.
In the United States and Europe,personal data protection was
commonplace, he said.
In Malaysia, however, we are
just beginning to build our legislativecapabilities.On the use
of the national lan-
guage, Rais said it should be promoted
by all, including the private sector tofacilitate the success of
the 1Malaysiaconcept.
It will be easy to achieve 1Malay-sia if we have one language
and onevision, Rais said.
Earlier in his speech, Rais said1Malaysia would be a uniting
forceamong the ministrys staff membersand departmental heads.
Bernama
PUTRAJAYA: Deputy Prime MinisterTan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
yesterdayreminded civil servants not to repeatthe wrongdoings
highlighted in the2008 Auditor-Generals report.
All the criticisms in the reportwould come to nought if those
in-volved did not take them seriously, hesaid, adding that these
were not the
usual criticisms but reminders thathad been made time and
again.
If these criticisms that have beenraised so often are still
repeated, thepeople may say that we are not seri-ous (about the
A-Gs report) ... givingthe impression that the governmentdoes not
consider the views of theteam that we know is monitoring our
work and annual reports, he said.Addressing the Education
Ministrys monthly assembly here,Muhyiddin, who is also
educationminister, said serious action must betaken because
repeated wrongdoingsshowed that the parties concerneddid not give
due attention to theirwork and thus ignored rules.
Maybe no specific action wastaken against the agency,
depart-ment or individual who committedthe wrongdoing, hence the
criticismskeep on appearing in the auditreports, he said.
He said the National Key ResultAreas and the Key
PerformanceIndicators introduced recently werea challenge that must
be met to givemore focus to achieve the targetsquickly.
He said this was not an easything to do, but it was doable if
aparadigm shift was achieved throughconcerted high commitment,
coop-eration among all parties and thewillingness of the officers
to servewhole-heartedly.
At the assembly, Muhyiddinpresented the Jalur Gemilang to
thenational contingent to the World Ro-bot Olympiad 2009 in Pohang,
SouthKorea, from Nov 6 to 8.
A total of 300 teams from 32 coun-tries are taking part in the
olympiad.
Malaysia is represented by SJKCJalan Davidson, Kuala Lumpur;
SJKCYuk Chai, Petaling Jaya; SMK Method-ist, Tanjung Malim, Perak;
SMK Man-tin, Negri Sembilan; SMK St Francis,Malacca and SM Sains
Sabah, KotaKinabalu. Bernama
PUTRAJAYA: The governmentwill introduce a new reward
system to motivate civil servantsand inculcate the culture of
highperformance in the public sector,Prime Minister Datuk Seri
NajibAbdul Razak said.
He said the country was facinga huge challenge and that
althoughthe country was successful, itremained trapped in the
middle-income group.
This means that if we dont dosomething, we will remain in
thismiddle-income trap.
Meaning, we are neither poornor rich. This is the biggest
chal-lenge for the country ... how wecan motivate ourselves so
thatwe are not stuck at where we are,but to move forward to becomea
truly successful country in ourown mould, he said at the
PrimeMinisters Departments monthlygathering here yesterday.
Najib said he and his deputy,Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, as
well
as Chief Secretary to the Govern-ment Tan Sri Mohd Sidek
Hassanwere now looking into the rewardsystem.
Maybe we need to rename theQuality Day as Innovation Day. Wewant
to formulate a more mean-ingful reward system, unlike theprevious
one where civil servantswere given vertical or diagonalsalary
increments, he said.
This is not an effective systembecause we can collude to
abusethe system; this year, its my turn(to get the vertical or
diagonal in-crement), next year, its your turn.
And dont tell me it didnt hap-pen. It happened, I know.
Najib said the new reward sys-tem was to show that the
govern-ment would not tolerate mediocrityor abuse of power.
On the other hand, he said, high
performance should be rewardedaccordingly.
We should reward departmentswhich collected more taxes orthose
which are successful in pros-ecutions or those which
producedcompelling products from researchand development
activities.
He also called for an end toabuse and mismanagement aspointed
out in the Auditor-Gener-als Report, saying it reflected badlyon
the government.
People have become very cyni-cal. Each time a report is
produced,they say its just a report and noaction will be taken.
It is the same old story ... ourperformance is not getting any
bet-ter and the people are criticising us.This will affect the
government,he said.
Najib also called on departmentheads not to tolerate
mediocrityamong officers. Bernamamonitoring at markets and all
entry points following USFDAsreport on its website, www.fda.gov,
on Oct 1 regardingthe 18 dried fruits, she saidin a statement.
She said as a precautionarymeasure, the ministry also car-ried
out a Level 5 inspection onall dried fruits including driedplums
and dried prunes. Theministry also carried out checkson other dried
fruits apart fromthe 18 on USFDAs list.
Up until now, 15 of 44 sam-ples of dried fruits were ana-lysed
and the results showedthat they did not contain leadbeyond the
permissible level of2mg/kg under the Food Regu-lations Act 1985,
she said.
Govt to cut reliance
on food importsKUALA LUMPUR: The govern-ment intends to reduce
the coun-trys dependence on food importsworth RM28 billion last
year toabout RM14 billion annually.
Prime Minister Datuk SeriNajib Abdul Razak said the movewill
curb currency outflow.
To achieve this objective, Najibstressed the need to establish
aneconomy to realise a high incomemodel to enhance the earnings
offarmers, fishermen and breeders.
The challenge is to bringagricultural producers closerto the
market so that they canreceive a bigger income, Najibsaid in his
speech at the nationallevel Farmers Market Conven-tion 2009
here.
He expressed support for theFederal Agricultural
MarketingAuthoritys proposal under the10th Malaysia Plan to
provide5,000 three-wheeler motorcyclesto entrepreneurs who act as
sup-pliers to the Agrobazaar KedaiRakyat and farmers markets.
Muhyiddinlookingat one ofthe robotsthat will becompetingat the
WorldRobotOlympiad2009.
PUTRAJAYA: A member of par-liament who is a former
Selangorassemblyman and his aide, aformer officer to the
Selangormentri besar, a special aide toa Selangor executive
councillor,and a company director are toface corruption charges
today.
In a statement, the MalaysianAnti-Corruption Commission
(MACC) said it arrested theformer assemblyman and his aideon
Sunday under Section 11 (c) ofthe Anti Corruption Act 1997.
The MP will be charged withsubmitting invoices with
falseinformation for a programmewhich was never carried outduring
his term as assemblyman.His aide will be charged withabetting the
former assembly-man in making the claims.
They will be charged today atthe Shah Alam sessions court.
Meanwhile, the former officerfor the Selangor mentri besarwas
arrested yesterday underthe Penal Code.
He was arrested for alleg-edly cheating a president of a
government-linked company inSelangor and coercing him
intosponsoring a state governmentevent to the tune of RM50,000.
In the fourth case, a specialaide to the Selangor exco will
becharged under the Anti-CorruptionAct 1997 and the Penal Code.
He will be charged for sub-mitting an invoice containing
false information to the SepangDistrict Office for the supplyof
paraphernalia for the 2008National Day programme whichwere not
delivered. He will alsobe charged on two counts ofcriminal breach
of trust underSection 406 of the Penal Code.
Finally, a company directorwill be charged with graft
forsubmitting invoices with falseinformation to the Hulu
LangatDistrict Office for the purpose ofsupplying goods for
programmesin the Teratai state constituencyin Selangor last year.
No goodswere delivered.
He will also be charged todayunder Section 11(c) of the
Anti-Corruption Act 1997.
Five, including MP, toface charges today
BERNAMAPIX
