Monday, December 10, 2007

Housing allowance for civil servants to be doubled

Star, 1oth December 2007.

SEREMBAN: The housing allowance for graduate civil servants will be almost doubled from RM210 to RM400 effective Jan 1.
Those in the DG43 and DG44 categories would benefit from this, said Public Service director-general Tan Sri Ismail Adam.
He said graduate civil servants in the DG41 and newly created DG42 categories would see their housing allowance increased from the present RM210 to RM250. The move would benefit an estimated 150,000 civil servants.
“However, this benefit will not include police, prisons, fire and rescue services and armed forces personnel as they have their own schemes,” he said in a circular.
Police officers with the rank of inspectors and chief inspectors now get RM420 for housing allowance. Ismail said the increment would also benefit eligible civil servants in local authorities, statutory bodies and state governments and agencies.
In a separate circular, Ismail said civil servants who were fluent in certain foreign languages would be given a monthly allowance of between RM100 and RM150 if this helped them in carrying out their official duties.
“If they can speak a foreign language, it will certainly benefit our nation which has trade and diplomatic ties with many countries.
“This benefit will be given to Malaysian civil servants based at our missions abroad as well as to those working here and are required to deal with foreigners,” he said. He said the foreign languages were Arab, Mandarin, French, Russian and Spanish.
Ismail said those who had basic knowledge of a foreign language would be paid RM100 while those who were fluent would be given RM150 every month.
“They will have to submit their certificates to their department heads for consideration,” he said.
Cuepacs president Omar Osman said the increase in housing allowance should also be extended to civil servants in the Support Group who now received RM180 in housing allowance every month
“The bulk of the civil service is made up of employees in the Support group. Although we welcome the government’s decision to raise the housing allowance for graduates, why have those in the Support group been left out?” he asked.
Omar said the PSD should increase the housing allowance for this group to RM230.

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