PUTRAJAYA – The Customs Department is allowing a temporary postponement of placement and transfer directives according to requests from its officers involved in these orders, said Director-General Datuk Anis Rizana Mohd Zainudin.
In a statement yesterday, she said that several transfers of the department’s officers have been postponed due to family, health and children’s schooling reasons.
“The Customs Department consistently emphasises the well-being of departmental staff in line with the goal of creating an efficient organisation under the elements of efficiency, agility and integrity.
“It is to contribute to the country’s economic development through efficient government revenue collection, trade facilitation and close cooperation with all stakeholders,” she said.
The statement was issued following a statement by the president of the Peninsular Malaysia Customs Officers’ Union, Abdul Malik Mohamed Zin, who claimed that the transfer directives made by the department’s director-general were issued without first considering the officers’ welfare.
Malik also claimed yesterday that the transfer orders issued are final, and any appeal is not allowed, as stated in the transfer directive.
In response, the union has urged the Customs Department’s top management to cancel the transfer orders involving several of its officers between states.
Anis Rizana said the placement and transfer directives for officers are in line with the order issued by the department – namely Permanent Order of Appointment No. 78-Placement and Transfer Policy dated August 10, 2023 – and the appointment of officers in the public service and related appointment matters under Separation UP.2.2.1 (Employee Transfer Guide) issued by the Public Service Department effective January 1, 2022.
It is also subject to the National Anti-Corruption Plan 2019–2023 (Half-Term Review) under Strategic Objective 2.1: Engineering Public Service towards good governance involving initiatives to strengthen mechanisms in enforcing mandatory rotation for civil servants holding sensitive positions, she said.
According to her, the transfers, among other things, can help enrich and expand the duties, in terms of job enrichment and job enlargement, of officers and prevent any possibility of misconduct, abuse of power and corruption.
“All transfers implemented involve customs officers who have served more than seven years in the same locality,” she said.
Anis Rizana stated that the policy of placement and transfer implementation is to transfer officers who have served at least three years but not more than five years in a position classified as sensitive.
The policy also involves transferring officers who have served at least three years but not more than eight years in a position classified as non-sensitive.
“An officer can be transferred either by the order of the director-general of Customs or at the request of the officer himself, approved by the director-general of Customs based on the service’s interest, without being bound by the stated service period in the paragraphs above,” she said. – December 29, 2023