President-elect Donald Trump named tech billionaire Elon Musk and conservative activist Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday to head up a new Department of Government Efficiency, fulfilling a campaign pledge to give Musk sweeping oversight of government spending.
Donald Trump has vowed to demolish what he calls the “deep state” – a conspiratorial term for the American federal bureaucracy. A second Trump administration, running mate JD Vance has said, should fire thousands of civil servants
Trump said in a statement on to social media that the department will help “dismantle Government Bureaucracy” and slash excess regulations.
“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk said in the statement released by the transition team.
On X, he added: “Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!”
Musk has said he wants to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, which is more than the discretionary budget of $1.7 trillion.
Elon Musk explains the importance of creating the Department of Government Efficiency. “There are around 428 federal agencies. There’s so many that people have never even heard of. I think we should be able to get away with 99 agencies.”
A huge chunk of federal spending isn’t just accidental waste—it’s funding jobs that exist purely to spend taxpayer money. Hiring loads of people and funneling billions into unnecessary programs has often been the real goal.
Tun M : Pak Lah & Najib Left Us A Bloated Civil Service – Increase Salary But Same Productivity
Tun M was never a fan of a larger civil service, and is a strong believer in not raising salaries frequently.
In an exclusive interview with FMT at his office in Putrajaya, Mahathir many times argued against an increase in salary, saying it is a factor in rising living costs.
“You increase salaries, (the) private sector also will follow you. And the cost of everything will go up. So that is not the way to run any organisation,” he said.
Mahathir, who resigned in 2003 after 22 years in power, is not happy that his philosophy was not followed by his successors during his 15-year absence from government.
“What they did was, they increased the number of workers, from one million at the time when I stepped down, to 1.6 million,” he said.
He added that the burden was now passed to the Pakatan Harapan government.
“600,000 extra salaries to pay, and they increase salaries sometimes twice a year. 10% and then 10% again.”
Malaysia’s “bloated” civil service has been a long-standing concern, with operational expenditure forming the bulk of the national budget every year.
In 2003, the year Mahathir ended his long stint as the fourth prime minister, the government spent RM22 billion on salaries for civil servants.
In 2016, this figure had more than doubled to RM74 billion.
Similarly, civil servant pensions cost the government RM19 billion in 2016, from just RM5.9 billion in 2003.
Mahathir said Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who took over from him in 2003, and Najib Razak who became prime minister in 2009, had only aggravated the burden by increasing the salaries of civil servants in a bid to “buy their loyalty”.
“What they did was to buy the loyalty of the civil servants by increasing their pay, sometimes by 25%.
“Where do you get the money? You get the money by cutting down on development.”
He added that the civil service had not become more efficient despite its size ballooning by 60%.
“The productivity is the same, it’s not any better.”
Source : FMT
Malaysia 1.71 Million Civil Servants Salaries Costing RM95.6 Billion & Another RM32.4 Billion For Pensioners
Saddled with RM1.5 trillion national debt, it isn’t earning revenue fast enough to serve its ballooning debts. As revealed in its Budget 2024, the largest in Malaysia’s history, a mind-boggling RM303.8 billion has been allocated for operating expenditure (opex), leaving only RM90 billion for development expenditure. The government has to borrow RM86.2 billion, or 21.9% of the RM393.8 billion budget.
To pay the salaries of the 1.71-million bloated civil servants alone, RM95.6 billion (24.3% of total budget) has been allocated. Retirement for government pensioners would burn another RM32.4 billion (8.2% of Budget 2024).
Nobody – not even PM Anwar – dares to bell the cat as it is political suicide to even suggest a downsizing of the world’s most bloated civil service. Every single prime minister chose to kick the can down the road, and let our grandkids solve that problem. However, investors were not dumb and they could see the problems with a country with such a disaster annual budget.
While the country is not bankrupt, at least not yet, the real amount of money it possesses in terms of purchasing power is depleting fast.
Ticking Time Bomb Of Civil Service Pensions – Pension Payments Could Reach RM46 Billion Yearly
The pension system took up a whopping RM30.5 billion in this year’s federal budget, amounting to nearly 8% of the RM389 billion budget, and an increase of RM3 billion over the 2021 budget.
Former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has predicted that pension payments could reach about RM46 billion by 2030.
This massive bill must be tackled before prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is also finance minister, is able to fulfil his pledge to cut Malaysia’s deficit budget to 3.5% in 2025.
The Pension Act 1980 sets out a formula for calculating a civil servant’s pension. A civil servant who has served least 25 years qualifies for a minimum pension of 50% of his last drawn monthly basic salary. For those who go on to serve 30 years, the amount increases to 60%.
Pension reform would risk offending and turning away 1.7 million voters (one million civil servants and 700,000 pensioners), a community generally seen as a vote bank for the government of the day.
Pensioners’ rights are also protected by the Federal Constitution, which states that the government shall not compromise the pension schemes already awarded to civil servants.
45% Of Malaysia Budget Goes To Paying Wages & Pensions To Past And Present Civil Servants
Almost 45 percent of Malaysia’s budget goes to paying wages and pensions to past and present civil servants. The ability of the government to cover these payments is under question. Standards have been declining since 2014. The size needs to be cut urgently and practices modernized to make government more efficient according to a recent World Bank report.
Many government services are duplicated in rural services, vocational training, border protection and religious administration that could be streamlined and coordinated, making taxpayer savings.
Transparency and accountability are extremely low. Much of the annual Auditor-General’s report is not released to the public. Information about state civil services and agencies is extremely difficult to come by within the public domain.
No Freedom of Information Act (FOI) exists although it was promised. The Official Secrets Act (OSA) has been routinely used to hide information about tenders and other government business. The Whistleblower Act is extremely weak and the government still prefers to intimidate and threaten whistleblowers rather than investigate allegations of fraud and corruption within the civil service. There is still a prevailing culture, even with the new Pakatan Harapan, that transparency is still a prerogative – or not – of government.
Malaysians are at the mercy of decisions made by civil servants which can sometimes take months, with little recourse to appeal, should a decision go against the applicant’s interests. Although there is a Public Complaints Bureau (PCB), there is no specific body like an Administrative Appeals Tribunal or Ombudsman, although one is being planned.
The civil service has long lost direction, its intervention into what should be a market-driven economy causing more problems than it has solved. It is not the job of the government to pick market winners, or neither the job of the civil service to make that happen. The white elephants that have been created at both federal and state levels have cost Malaysian taxpayers dearly. Special purpose vehicles have only been opportunities for unscrupulous civil servants to profit through fraud and corruption.
Malaysia Civil Service Exorbitant Mismanagement Wastage Over RM122 Billion Annually
The Auditor-General’s Report usually highlights the wastage and leakage of allocated budget and taxpayers’ money.
Don’t expect any civil servants to be charged and jailed for the mismanagement of funds.
The Auditor-General’s Report has no impact on any civil servant as the auditor-general has no authority to prosecute.
The enforcement agencies pretend not to know, not to see, and not to rock the boat.
The blame is always on the standard operating procedure (SOP) and not on anybody else.
When nobody goes to jail for the misappropriation of funds, most civil servants think it is SOP as no action is taken.
The most salient point raised by the recent Auditor-General’s Report 2022 was the exorbitant wastage running to over RM122 billion which was seen as recurring annually.
How then will Malaysia be poised to emerge as a dynamic and resilient player in the global economic arena if mismanagement and corruption work hand in hand? Are civil service officers being reprimanded or fired for losses and wastage in their organisations? NO! As a result, the losses keep repeating.
There was also an incident where those civil servants who caused the loss of funds did so due to stupid decisions and not due to corruption.
There is no law to charge for stupidity. When the head of the government can do what he likes with impunity, the civil servants just follow.
The rakyat won’t be able to see any changes now and forever as the ruling coalition depends on the civil servants to vote them in.
This corruption is so deeply entrenched within the civil service that it is nearly impossible to rectify.
Source : Malaysiakini
The latest Auditor-General’s Report reports losses by government agencies annually, which is waste of taxpayer money
In presenting the report Federal Agencies, Auditor-General of Malaysia Datuk Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi, highlighted five federal agencies recorded deficits amounting to RM3.115bil.
The five are the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda), the Electric Industry Fund Group (KWIE), the Railway Asset Corporation (RAC), the National Trust Fund Group (KWAN), and the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).
The report found that Felda’s expenditure in 2022 amounted to RM1.947bil.“The expenditure within Felda exceeded the income of RM0.942bil due to an increase in the impairment of value by RM0.742bil, resulting in a profit loss of RM1.005bil,” it said.
“This situation is partly caused by the impairment of investment value by RM0.380 billion, amounts owed by subsidiary companies totalling RM0.193bil, and settler debts amounting to RM0.147bil,” the report added.
It said that KWIE’s expenditure was RM1.015bil in 2022, exceeding its income of RM0.025 bil and this has produced a deficit of RM0.990bil in KWIE.
“This is because KWIE does not receive any revenue from the excess electricity tariff rebates or charges due to increased fuel costs.
Additionally, KWIE’s funds are used to cover rebate expenses as a mitigation plan to minimize the impact of electricity tariffs on consumers,” it said.
Meanwhile, the RAC’s expenditure in 2022 was RM0.641bil, surpassing its income of RM0.157bil, resulting in RM0.484 bil of losses.
This is due to a decrease in the sale of used goods by RM0.162bil in 2022.
As Malaysia spearheads its economic recovery, it’s disheartening to see such leakages exposed.
“The nation can pave the way to a more robust and technologically advanced future by only curbing the wastage by mismanagement by the civil service. In contrast, embracing innovation, promoting collaboration, and prioritising economic development is the only way to gain economic momentum.
“Malaysia’s economic outlook is optimistic, provided the civil service and other government agencies play a significant role in driving innovation, competitiveness, and economic growth.
“The latest Auditor-General’s Report reports losses by government agencies annually, which is waste of taxpayer money,” said a concerned Malaysian and experienced banker.
Gopala Krishnan,(Pic, Above) who spent 40 years in the Banking industry and retired as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of a leading bank’s Treasury and Investment Banking, expressed his concern about the report, which revealed that ten federal agencies have loan balances of RM 122 billion for 2022.
Source : Business Today
MACC Chief : Over 3,000 Bribery Reports Lodged Against Civil Servants In Year 2024
A total of 545 individuals, or 43.4 per cent of the 1,257 people detained by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) from January to October this year, were civil servants, said MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki.
He revealed that these arrests included nine from senior management, 181 from professional management, and 357 from the executive or support level.
“The remaining 712 individuals, or 56.6 per cent, were from the private sector and the general public,” he told reporters after the launch of the MACC Keningau branch office at Federal House here today.
Also present was Sabah MACC director Datuk Karunanithy Y Subbiah.
Azam said that the offences committed by civil servants included bribery, submitting false claims, abuse of power, and money laundering (AMLA) cases.
He said that arrests of civil servants across the country remained high, with nearly 50 per cent of those detained being from the public sector.
“If we want to say that corruption among civil servants has reduced, it should ideally be under 40 per cent and continue to decrease each year. However, it appears that corruption issues involving civil servants still require more thorough, clear, and effective action,” he added.
RM114.5mil Cash Seized In Sabah Civil Servant Corruption Case Biggest In MACC History – Several Banks Abroad , 127 Land Titles, 9 Luxury Cars, 94 Branded Handbags
The seizure of RM114.5 million in a case of abuse of power involving infrastructure projects valued at RM3.3 billion, associated with two civil servants in Sabah, is the biggest in the history of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
MACC Azam Baki said the seizure was made following the arrests of the civil servants – a director and a deputy director of a government agency yesterday.
“An MACC investigation led to the seizure of RM75 million from the offices, houses and bank accounts of the suspects (director and deputy director) and their families,” he told a press conference here.
“Following their (Datuk and accountant) arrests, the MACC froze about RM37 million in the accounts of a company suspected to be linked to one of the civil servants,” he said.
“Since the anti-corruption agency was set up 49 years ago, we have never seized so much money from individuals, particularly civil servants.
“We believe the suspects also have cash deposited in several banks abroad,” he said.
Azam said the director and deputy director were suspected to have handled infrastructure construction projects valued at over RM3.3 billion since 2010, and had given all of them to their siblings.
They were being investigated under Section 17 of the MACC Act, he said.
Azam said the MACC had also seized 127 land titles, nine luxury cars, 94 branded handbags, watches of various brands and jewellery, the value of which had yet to be ascertained.
The Coverage Malaysia
