(Petaling Jaya, Tuesday): DAP fully endorses the CUEPACS demand that the government pay bonus to the police immediately in view of the Hari Raya celebrations.
There can be excuse whatsoever for the delayed payment of the bonus to police personnel and civilian staff until the first week of January, and the excuse of inadequate staff to deal with the bonus payment for 76,000 men, 7,000 officers and about 8,000 civilian staff is completely unacceptable and reflects poorly on the professionalism and competence of police administration.
If this is an acceptable excuse, then there would be no payment of bonus to all the other 800,000 civil servants until at least the end of next month, when in fact they have been paid their bonus amounting to their half month's basic salary or a minimum of RM500.
The announcement on the bonus payment was made by the Finance Ministry on December 13, and there is no excuse for Bukit Aman Logistics Department to claim that it had just received the circular on the payment from the Public Services Department.
An efficient and pro-active police administration would have taken immediate steps to ensure that bonus payment could be paid out to the entire police personnel before the Christmas and Hari Raya holidays once public announcement of the half-month bonus was announced by the Finance Ministry, and the late receipt of the official communication from the Public Services Department could be no acceptable excuse for the delay in the bonus payment until the first week of next year - especially in this era of Information Technology with instant communications.
The Deputy Prime Minister who is also Home Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi and the Finance Minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin, should be sensitive
to the needs of the police personnel and their families and ensure that
they are not penalised or inconvenienced because of some administrative
foul-up of the police administration and that they are all paid their bonus
in time for the Hari Raya holidays.
(26/12/2000)