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TEKS UCAPAN

YANG AMAT BERHORMAT

DATUK PATINGGI TAN SRI (DR) HAJI ADENAN BIN HAJI SATEM KETUA MENTERI SARAWAK

DI HARI PERKHIDMATAN AWAM 2014

Syukur Alhamdulillah, sekali lagi kita berpeluang berkumpul bersama di Hari Perkhidmatan Awam pada tahun ini. Saya amat gembira melihat kehadiran begitu ramai penjawat awam yang terdiri daripada pelbagai agensi dalam perkhidmatan awam Negeri dan Persekutuan berkumpul dalam suasana yang harmoni dan muhibah.

Kehadiran tuan-tuan dan puan-puan menunjukkan komitmen warga perkhidmatan awam dalam menjalankan amanah yang dipertanggungjawabkan oleh rakyat kepada kita.

Pada  kali  ini,  Hari  Perkhidmatan  Awam  bertemakan  “Penjawat  Awam  Kompeten  Tonggak

Kecemerlangan Perkhidmatan‟‟ yang sangat bertepatan dengan usaha gigih Perkhidmatan Awam Negeri Sarawak dalam membangunkan kompetensi dalam kalangan penjawat awam bagi mencapai visi transformasi.

[Civil Servants and Good Governance]

Sarawak Civil Service is vigorously undergoing a journey of transformation towards a world-class government. The overall objective is to basically change the way the government operates in order to

deliver excellent services to its customers and the rakyat where and when they are needed most and the approach in the development of the country. To be world class in your service the civil service must be honest, sincere and fully committed about its transformation and changing its culture when delivering service to the rakyat. To realize these expectations, the Civil Service needs a workforce

who is well-equipped with the relevant competencies in various fields of expertise. It is their experience, skills and competencies that constitute the foundation of good governance. Therefore, it is of little surprise that the expectations entrusted on today‟s civil servants are more challenging than

those placed on them a decade or two ago. That is to say, civil servants today are expected to be high-performing, competent, reliable and trustworthy. They are not only equipped with the competencies to meet the needs of the present but must also be able to master the relevant

competencies for the future.

[Higher Order Competencies ]

At this point of time, the Civil Service is facing what some experts‟ term as the „quiet crisis‟. This

refers to the situation where our baby boomer generation is retiring and is replaced by fresh new talents who may not be fully equipped with the skills needed to perform their jobs. We must therefore ensure that this transition of talents, experience and expertise is done seamlessly and efficiently so that it does not affect the performance of our Civil Service. It is important that top leaders in the service address the competency gap of younger civil servants within our workforce in a strategic manner, particularly for higher-order competencies. Some of these competencies that the service needs urgently are the ability to establish a strong direction and strategic vision.  Another competency involves the civil servants capability to engage with internal and external people with integrity and honesty while maintaining a positive and professional attitude. This cannot be done if younger talents rely too much on senior people for these higher order competencies. In a transformational government, the entire workforce should have mastery in these competencies to enable the civil service to brand itself as an excellent and highly competent organization. We must always invest, develop and enhance the competencies within our people so that we will not lag behind in the global competition.

[The Current Scenario]

The Sarawak Civil Service recognizes the importance of having the right people to perform the right jobs in order to ensure excellent service delivery, increased productivity, superior results and better

customer satisfaction.

The various components of excellence that contribute to competencies amongst civil servant must be developed from the day they are recruited. They must carry the values in them as civil servant as a

life time value. I am happy to note that the civil service have inculcate the values and made it part of the SCS transformation. I am also delighted that one of the key components of competencies is integrity.

[Enforcement of Laws on Our Natural Resources]

Integrity is about being honest, trust and accountability demonstrated through transparency, justice and fairness in actions. It is about doing your job with due diligence without fear or favour.  Some

time ago, I have addressed the issue of illegal loggers who infiltrated two national parks in Sarawak, one of which is the State‟s largest protected peat swamp forest. This is a very serious issue as it involves Sarawak‟s priceless natural heritage. How did this happen when it is right under our nose? What actions have we taken or are going to take to combat the illegal logging and smuggling of our

natural resources? We need a competent workforce to go to the ground to investigate the situation, to come out with concrete strategies against illegal loggers and to find preventive measures to curb future illegal logging. On our part, we have stopped issuing new timber licenses, and those holding

logging licenses have now been warned to comply with the prevailing regulations. In future, we hope to gazette at least one million hectares of forests in Sarawak for protection. With an increased number of national parks, we will need a more competent workforce who possesses the relevant

expertise in forestry as well as a larger pool of confident law enforcement officers. Therefore it is crucial that the relevant agencies ensure that their workforce is sufficiently equipped with the knowledge, skills and know-how to handle serious issues so that we can preserve our natural resources and heritage.

[Corruption in the Civil Service ]

As competent civil servants, it is not only about having the right knowledge and skills but also the right attitudes and values. In the State Civil Service, we pride ourselves with the six (6) shared values

and  the  philosophy  of  „An  Honour  to  Serve‟. These  values  are  Integrity,  Kind  and  Caring,

Professionalism, Sense of Urgency and Ownership, Team Spirit and Result-Oriented. These two concepts are not just mere words to impress the rakyat but our vow to serve them, our customers and stakeholders, as long as we are in the Civil Service. Providing service with honour can only happen if we can gain and sustain the rakyat‟s complete trust and the mother of all trust is integrity. All civil servants understand the value of integrity and the importance of practicing and enculturing it.

Still, the State Civil Service is facing some issues with a small minority of civil servants that have swayed into corruption. This is a fundamental threat to the government and to the rakyat because corruption costs the government millions of ringgit of losses every year, money that could have been better spent on delivering services to the people.  From a wider perspective, corruption will greatly harm  the  state‟s  economy,  cause investors  to lose trust  and  eventually  affect  our investment prospects and our economic well-being. It will definitely tarnish the reputation of the State Civil Service as the trustee and guardian of the rakyat. To gain the rakyat‟s trust, we must uphold integrity at the highest level by adopting a zero tolerance towards any form of corruption. Albert Einstein once said, „The world will not be destroyed by people who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”. It is to say that detecting corruption and making sure that it is not repeated is not the sole responsibility of anti-fraud officials and auditors but the responsibility of everyone else, be it civil servants or the public. For example, if we see, know or suspect any form of corruption happening in the State, it is both our personal and professional responsibility to report the matter to the relevant authorities. By failing to do so, we would have betrayed our accountability in preventing a serious plague from infecting the service. This would result in our failure to create an environment of transparency, ethical conduct and integrity. Some months ago, I have taken an integrity pledge not to allow my immediate family members, be it my wife or my children, to apply for state land or logging concessions and I have remained committed to the agreement which was recommended by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). This is to show my seriousness in the fight against corruption, but I cannot win this fight alone. So I urge every civil servant to take a pledge of commitment to eradicate corruption from the service once and for all. If we are to be recognized as public servants who serve with honour and integrity, then we must take a bold step towards having a government that is totally free from corruption.

The ‘Just Do It’ Approach

One of the areas that has been a major concern is the efficiency of our project and service delivery system. Being the biggest state in Malaysia in terms of land area, we are bound to face challenges in delivering our services to the rakyat especially in rural areas. However, we cannot continue to give excuses every time roads are not completed, homes are not supplied with water and electricity or basic facilities are not provided. The rakyat  today   want solutions, and they want them fast. As competent civil servants, it is our obligation to plan and strategize, but what is more important is that we can take immediate action on the initiatives and deliver the goods. We do not need complex rhetoric to get the job done; my advice is „Just Do It‟. Attending to a problem with immediate effect is in fact one of the shared values in the civil service relating to a Sense of Urgency and Ownership.

[Looking Forward]

I am happy to note that the transformational initiatives we have planned have achieved a commendable success. I must also give credit to State Secretary for his efforts to continuously develop the human capital in SCS and ensure that the workforce we have is highly trained not only for the present but for the years ahead. We have made various significant improvements in our work systems but of course we must never rest on our laurels and be complacent with our current achievements. Embarking on new processes such as competency management framework and recruitment and selection tools is an important milestone but of greater achievement is our tenacity to keep on exploring and innovating to remain competitive in the global market. I am optimistic and enthusiastic about our future developments particularly for the rakyat in the rural areas. I am certain that by adopting a systematic approach to tackle issues facing the state particularly in project management and service delivery, we will be able to sustain the trust and confidence of the people. They will see us as public servants capable of adopting the „walk the talk‟ approach and as caring people who have their best interests at heart at all times. When all is said and done, the greatest priority for all civil servants is to uphold integrity and the quality of our service to the highest standards. I have the utmost confidence that if every civil servant has the conviction and sincerity to genuinely serve the rakyat, we will be much closer to our destination towards world-class excellence. So let us put our heads and hearts together and continue to embrace this transformational journey with a renewed sense of vigour and passion.

Dengan kata-kata demikian dan dengan lafaz bismillahirahmanirahim, saya dengan sukacitanya merasmikan Hari  Perkhidmatan Awam Tahun 2014.  Sekian, wabilahitaufik walhidayah wasalammualaikum warahmatullahiwabarakatuh