BIPK no longer meets criteria for allowance granting - PSD

By Norsyafawati Ab Wahab and Rosmalis Anuar

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 26 -- The abolition of the Critical Service Incentive Payment (BIPK) involving 33 service schemes is because it no longer meets the criteria for granting the allowance.

Public Service Department (PSD) Deputy Director-General (Development) Datuk Suhaime Mahbar said BIPK was introduced in 1992 due to low recruitment in certain sectors at the time and to attract graduates to join public service.

“Critical here does not mean that the job is difficult but it is very difficult to get the expertise.

“For example, there were not many medical graduates back then, therefore the allowance was introduced to attract them to join the public service.

“However, nowadays, we have received 24,756 applications for medical officer posts, exceeding the employment requirement of 15,268,” he told Bernama.

Apart from the medical field, Suhaime said other posts affected were architects, marine officers, engineers and pilots as the number of applicants was far higher than the vacancies.

He noted that the abolition of an allowance was not a new thing as it would also be reviewed every five years to determine the necessity.

Suhaime said to date, 27 allowances had been abolished, merged or rebranded since 1992 as they did not meet the granting criteria.

Among them were the Good Conduct Allowance, the Snake Poisoning Allowance, Special Stenographer Allowance, Mail Train Allowance, and Accountant Encouragement Allowance, he said.

“The government will always consider the application and review all public sector allowances based on certain principles, ”he said.

Suhaime did not rule out that BIPK would be reintroduced to attract more experts in new fields to join the public sectors to face the era of the fourth industrial revolution (IR4.0).

Commenting on the call for medical officers to continue to receive such allowance due to their workload constraints, Suhaime said many did not know that they were actually eligible to receive 22 other allowances and facilities based on their assigned tasks.

The allowances included Hospital Administration Allowance, Medical On-call Allowance, Flexible Working Hours Allowance for Graduate Medical Officers and Specialist Incentive Payment, he added.

“What needs to be understood is the allowances given are not permanent and can be withdrawn according to the current situation, but many consider them as their absolute right,” he said.

-- BERNAMA