He urged civil servantsto do away with certain red tapes or bureaucratic practices which might be obsolete and impratical in IT and globalisation era.

"Heads of government departments and agencies should be proactive in serving the public by adopting an attitude of flexibility," he said.

He advised government officers to improve and if necessary change the procedures in solving problems instead sticking to a rigid regime implemented decades ago.

Tiong said he ageed with Prime Minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's view on the performance of civic servants in the country.

"From my observation, civial servants in Malaysia are not pro-active but reactive - they only react and think of solutions after some major problems have cropped up or some tragedies have happened,"he added.

Tiong was speaking to reporters after attending the MAKSAK Bintulu Annual Dinner at the weekend.

He pointed out that for Malaysia to attain the objectives of Vision 2020, governemtn officers must change their mindset , adopt a proactivie attitude and if need be, improve and change the administrative system to raise their levels of efficiency and competence.

Civial servants, he said, should always endeavour to clear their workload on a daily basis rather than procrastinate and let the backlog pile up.

"It is common knowledge among the public that after sending some important documents to government departments, they receive they reply either in a month, a few months or years.  Some of the documents even got lost," he added.

Tiong believed if they could expedite processing ehir daily workload, civil servants could concentrate better on handling new cases the following day, hence improving their efficiency in serving the public.

He saw no reason why this could not be done since most government departments and agencies had ample manpower.  

"Nowadays, there is a mounting sense of public dissatisfaction towards our civil servants' inability to perform, he said.

Noting that a portion of civil servants in the country had said they were underpaid and wsere asking for better perks and allowances, Tiong said:"In fact, the civil servants in the country are enjoying reasonable wages, allowances and benefits.  But if they want to earn more, then it is advisable for them to quit the civil service and take up business.

Earlier, Tiong gave several government departments in Bintulu a dressing down for their poor performances.

He was disappointed with the Fire Rescue and Service Department whose pumps, he said, were found to be faulty in a few cases when the fire engines arrived at the scene of fire.

Their hoses were leaking thus causing low water pressure; besides, the fire hydrants were not maintained, he said.

"You must remember Bintulu contributes about five percent of Gross Domestic Product to the country.  In any event, we should not take the lives of the ordinary folk for granted when fire was destroying their properties".

Tiong assured he would help if the Department was experiencing a lack of fire-fighting equipment as he could forward its requests to the ministries concerned.

He also urged the police to step up crime-preventive as the rise in criminal activities in Bintulu was a matter of concern.

Tiong reminded the Public Works Department to ensure its contractors were carrying work in accordance with the conditions spelt out in their contracts.

"The failure to repair and maintain the Pan Borneo Highway alsong a strecth of the Bintulu-Miri road by the contractors is most disappointing," he stressed.

Earlier, Bintulu Resident, Dr. Razali Abon, advised all civil servants to become social agents of change.
 

"We must also add values to our roles, functions, responsibilities and tasks because we are in a dynamic and changing environment. Those who don't value-add in this environmental change, in my view, are irrelevant" he stressed.

Razali also emphasised the need for civil servants to promote rapport by inter-acting, co-operating and collaborating with the various government departments and agencies as well as the people adding that this would help to realise a new  pro-active role for civil servants.

Also prent werer Senator Hii Tiong Kuoh, general manager of Bintulu Development Authority, director of Bintulu Agriculture Department Puan Tan Bee Yan.

At the function, Tiong donated RM10,000 to MAKSAK Bintulu for carrying out its activities.