He said the immediate effects of retrenchment would include an increase in the unemployment rate and the emergence of issues regarding the welfare of civil servants.
He called for a “holistic handling” of the issue of an unwieldy civil service, suggesting that the government conduct a management audit. Only after the audit is done should the government study ways of reducing overlaps in public services, he added.
“Before we end up victimising the public sector, why don’t we think of restructuring departments and agencies?” he said in a media statement.
A former secretary-general of the Finance Ministry, Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim, recently said Putrajaya should start retrenching lower-level staff in the public sector while it could still afford to pay compensation.
Sheriff’s statement was supported by Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani, who said the bloat in the civil service had been causing yearly rises in government expenditure.
Salahuddin said a large number of government agencies currently performed almost identical roles and tasks.
“We have the Road Transport Department and at the same time we have the Land Public Transport Commission,” he said.
“What is the point of a Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju) when we have the Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara)? The National Housing Company overlaps with PR1MA and the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) was set up after we already had the Economic Planning Unit.
“Because of unsound advice to the Prime Minister, we set up the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) when we already had Khazanah Nasional Berhad.”
He said the same thing was happening in the country’s security system, where the duties of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency overlapped those of the Marine Operations Force and the Customs Department.
“I have not even started mentioning the useless overlapping of ministries and the extravagant creation of political positions,” he added.
He said the government should not use the excuse of being encumbered by financial burdens and payrolls to retrench workers.
“This is a premature argument and very one sided,” he said. “Carry out a detailed and efficient plan to increase the competence of our public services.”