Najib announced a new remuneration scheme for the civil servants last Friday during the 2012 budget. The scheme known as the new Civil Service Remuneration Scheme, or in Malay; Skim Saraan Baru Perkhidmatan Awam (SBPA) will see an annual increment of between RM80 and RM320, in addition to another 7%- 13% increment for those who opt to accept the SBPA.
Sound wonderful, right? Those opting to decline being in the civil service, or those choosing to resign must have had a sour face last Friday. I think among them would be sacked deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim who said the budget is unrealistic and an imitation to the oppositions proposed budget. First of all, whoever released their budget first can of course claim someone imitated theirs, and as for being unrealistic due to the huge RM70bil extra expenditure compared to income, I guess the country may just dig into its federal reserves or something similar. I’m no economist, so I can’t tell. I do know that if this budget is called an ‘election budget’, I’d love to have an election budget every year! –minus the deficit that is.
Well, the SBPA is indeed good news for civil servants. I’m thankful for it, and I bet many are. Nonetheless, I do have one hope over the SBPA since no proper documentation has yet to be released.
The hope is not big, but it’s rather a worrying trend I seen in previous budgets and monetary give outs. It’s regarding the giving of more ‘things’ to the employees which are of lower service grades, while their higher service grade counterparts get less.
In previous years, the government tends to give bigger increment to those of lower grade scale resulting in those only having a certificate/diploma catch up on those owning a degree. While the intention is good, but it demoralizes those with higher qualification, while at the same time send out the wrong signal to the younger generation. It shows that you do not need to pursue higher education, because you’d still get good pay. A quick example is as follows:
Individual A earns RM1000, and Individual B earns RM1500. Based on this, Individual A will get RM200 increment, while individual B will only get RM100.
The new pay would be RM1200 for A, and RM1600 for B, resulting in the difference in pay scale to decrease by RM400, instead of the initial RM500.
With that said, I hope that the 7-13% increment will not be according to service grade scale, but according to education qualification, experience, and seniority. An increment in pay should be balanced with everyone receiving equal percentage/amount. A person having a Masters, should be paid more than those with a Degree, and a person serving over 10 years should be paid more than a person which just recently came into service. On top of that, if one was having 20 years experience in a certain field, and just entered service, he or she should be paid more if compared to those with less experience in such a field.
Call me crazy or being unrealistic, but this is what I hope for under the SBPA. I know I am no economist, and I am most certainly not an expert in handling accounting. However, I do believe in rewarding indiduals according to merits and experience, but hey…. it’s just a hope of mine. Shall it come true is anyone’s guess. One thing’s for sure, I’m glad that there is a pay increase because my house monthly re-payment just got smaller in ‘pinch-size’.
Since I’m at it, thank you dear Prime Minister for a wonderful gift in the 2012 budget.