CUEPACS ACCEPTS GOVT'S DECISION ON PTK

Bernama
27/11/2008

KUANTAN, Nov 27 (Bernama) -- The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) has accepted the government's decision to continue with the Competency Level Assessment (PTK) examination for civil servants.Cuepacs president Omar Osman said Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan had told the congress in a meeting Wednesday that PTK would stay for the time being.Nevertheless, Cuepacs would still push for improvements so that the civil servants especially those who had served the government long get a fairer deal, he said."So, we accept the government's view that PTK is the best assessment method at present," he told reporters after giving a briefing on current issues at Universiti Malaysia Pahang here Thursday.Last week, Omar was reported to have said that Cuepacs would launch a nationwide roadshow next month to explain to the civil servants the rationale behind the plan to boycott the PTK examination which is considered compulsory for civil servants aiming for promotions.On Thursday, he said: "I hope the government employees can be patient. Anyhow, PTK is not compulsory which means those who are confident can take the examination and if they don't, it would not affect their annual increment."He said Cuepacs had no intention to stage a boycott and abolish PTK.It was only hoping that the Public Service Department would improve several aspects of it by conducting courses or training, for example, to assess the civil servants' competency level, he said."To date, not a single letter we have written to the government which says Cuepacs wants to abolish PTK because we do not have any reasons why PTK should be boycotted or abolished," Omar said.He said the issue of boycotting PTK arose after there were civil servants who had failed the examination after two or three attempts and it was them who had decided to boycott PTK."Presently, there are departments that still implement PTK and to those who want to take the examination, I'm asking them to be really sure that they will pass," he said.-- BERNAMA