PM: Special payment of RM500 better for now

KUALA LUMPUR: A special financial assistance of RM500 for each civil servant announced in the Budget 2011 is appropriate, said the Prime Minister.

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, also the Finance Minister, said many quarters had lobbied him to an­­nounce a month’s bonus for the civil servants.

“A month’s bonus incurs an expenditure of RM3.1bil for the Government. Personally, I will want to give a bonus but as a responsible finance minister, I cannot expend more than the national revenue,” he told the inaugural 1Malaysia National Teachers Assembly yesterday.

When tabling Budget 2011 in the Dewan Rakyat on Friday, Najib announced a special financial assistance of RM500 for all civil servants from Grade 54 and below as well as contract officers and retirees to be paid in December.

The prime minister said the aid could help civil servants cope with schooling expenses for their children at the end of the year.

He also said the Government had proposed other incentives for civil servants, such as maternity leave of up to 90 days which would benefit women teachers, who made up almost 70% of the 400,000 teachers in the country

“The maternity leave is a gift for women. But they can opt not to take the 90 days. It is up to them.

“I understand teachers have also submitted a memorandum on improvements to schemes for teachers. I want to ask you for more time for the Government to study the financial implications. If we are able to, I will discuss with Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (Education Minister) and we will make the announcement when the time comes,” he said.

Najib also indicated to teachers that of the RM212bil Budget, RM29.3bil and RM10.2bil had been allocated to the Education and Higher Education Ministries respectively

Both ministries combined received 22.8% of the allocations under 2011 Budget, which formed the largest portion.

He added that the 2011 Budget was another step forward towards transforming Malaysia into high-income economy country.

“The philosophy and direction is that we want to create a Malaysia where a person’s happiness is limited only by how much hard work we are willing to put in,” he added.

Najib also reminded that there was only a little more than nine years left to achieve Vision 2020.

“We have nine years 20 months and 17 days left to reach 2020. We cannot be lackadaisical any more because do not have much time left to achieve Vision 2020,” he said.