40,000 Civil Servants Given Option Of Pension Scheme

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 27 (Bernama) -- About 40,000 more civil servants will be in the pension scheme following the government's decision to grant back that option to all those who had earlier chosen the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) scheme.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the move was to enable these civil servants to enjoy the medical and other retirement benefits provided by the government.

"All this will be good for them in the long run," he said after presenting the Public Sector Quality Awards to the recipients at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre, here, Thursday.

He was asked to clarify on the announcement he made earlier in his speech, including on three other government decisions, which include paying ex-gratia to the parents of single civil servants who die in service, effective from Jan 1, 2009.

The government also agreed to improve the service scheme for investigation officers, assistant investigation officers and investigation assistants to strengthen corruption and crime prevention, as well as 20 per cent salary increase for officers and staff of other ranks of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, with effect from Jan 1, 2009.

On the cost involved following the decisions, Abdullah said it was still being assessed.

Meanwhile, Abdullah has asked the Selangor government to consider seriously the possibility of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and several areas in the southern part of the peninsula facing the risk of power supply disruption of three to four months if the Central Area Reinforcement project in Rawang failed to be fully completed.

"The state government should think about this and not just about politics. This is important as development is for the people," he said.

"My advice to the Selangor government is that, give the land that is needed for the project.

"We've heard from TNB (Tenaga Nasional Berhad) that if the problem is not solved, it could create other problems when there is insufficient power supply, hence the affected areas will suffer," he added.

Yesterday, TNB president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh said TNB really hoped that such a situation would not happen and it was trying its best to avoid this.

He said TNB could not do anything except prepare for a possible power supply disruption as land acquisition in Kampung Sungai Terentang which was required for the project, was under the jurisdiction of the state government.

-- BERNAMA : 27 November 2008