CUEPACS STILL WANTS TEST ABOLISHED

NST Online

6/11/2005

PUTRAJAYA: Cuepacs is holding on firmly to its call to abolish the Efficiency Assessment Level Test (PTK) for civil servants who have served more than 25 years.
"Those who have already completed the written test have to wait for some six months to a year for the results, further delaying their promotions," said Cuepacs president, Omar Osman. "For instance, I was told recently, that there were some 285 senior Customs officers that sat for the PTK in June and were yet to receive their results that was due last month," he said. When contacted, Public Service Department (PSD) director general, Tan Sri Ismail Adam, said that this issue fell under the purview of the Finance Ministry and that he had nothing to do with this issue."This clearly shows that there is a serious problem with the system and it needs to be revamped," said Omar.
He said that civil servants who have served for more than 25 years were experienced and had attended various courses and seminars through their course of service to guide them and did not require sitting for an examination to test their experience. Omar added that so far the PSD had decided to do away with the written test for Grade 1 to 16 officers. These officers only had to attend oral interviews for confirmation or promotion. However, it had still not decided to extend this privilege to those in grades 17 to 54, he said, adding that Cuepacs have already submitted their request to PSD to exempt this category of officers from the written test. He also said that he would be advocating this issue at a meeting hosted by Cuepacs which is scheduled for next month that would be attended by all stakeholders.