Merit and competence main criteria for civil service hiring, says Armizan

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians are hired for civil service positions based on merit and competence regardless of background, says Datuk Armizan Ali.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah, Sarawak Affairs and Special Functions) said in a parliamentary written reply dated Wednesday (Nov 15) there is no set quota for civil services hires, whatever the position, based on race or ethnicity.

“For the Public Services Commission of Malaysia (SPA), the method of recruitment and appointment of officers into the general federal public service is transparent, based on the merit and competence of candidates.

“All Malaysian citizens including minority groups, Chinese and Indians, have equal opportunities to be considered in open and fair competition,” he said.

Armizan said apart from the SPA, other agencies authorised to hire for civil service positions are the Education Service Commission, Judicial and Legal Service Commission, Police Force Commission, Armed Forces Council, state Civil Service Commissions, statutory authorities and local authorities.

Kesavan Subramaniam (PH-Sungai Siput) had asked about government efforts to increase the number of civil servants from the Indian community to reflect the population composition of 7%.

Kesavan said there are currently 41, 168 or 4.15% Indian civil servants, based on data from the Human Resources Ministry.

As of last year, Armizan said, 1,279,494 applications were made to the SPA and the commission called up 129,498 candidates for interview.

He said 991 or 4.8% of the successful candidates were Indian and had been hired for permanent positions.

“A total of 88,897 candidates attended the interview stage and of that number, 20,762 were hired.

“Of those hired, 16,126 (77.7%) are Malays, followed by 1,014 (4.9%) Chinese, 991 (4.8%) Indians, 1,199 (5.8%) Sabah bumiputras, 887 (4.3%) Sarawak bumiputras, 45 (0.2%) Orang Asli, and 500 (2.4%) others.

“From the Indian community, the SPA received 38,005 (3%) applications and called 4,516 (11.9%) candidates for interview, of whom 3,672 attended the session,” he said.