Time to change the bloated civil service

AS rightly pointed out by the Prime Minister recently, the civil service in Malaysia is bloated – it is so big that we could possibly face problems in future paying retired civil servants. The more than 1.7 million people on the government’s payroll tells us a lot about the size of the problem facing the nation, and it is hard to reduce the figure too, so said the Prime Minister.

The real issue is not the number but the right number for each ministry; certainly, we cannot just reduce our armed forces and police and fire services immediately so there has to be strict formulas to follow in determining the optimum number for each category of employment.