Varsities can hire retirees

The Star

By SARBAN SINGH

SEREMBAN: Public universities can now hire government retirees as lecturers on contract for one to three years but the retirees cannot be above 65 years old.

Public Service Department (PSD) Director-General Tan Sri Ismail Adam said this was part of efforts to enhance the public delivery system.

»This privilege can be withdrawn any time« TAN SRI ISMAIL ADAM

“With this decision, the managements can now decide to appoint retirees as lecturers in public universities as well as in UiTM or as medical or dentistry lecturers,” he said.

Prior to this, retirees in the top management group who wished to be hired as lecturers on a contract basis had to be approved by the Prime Minister.

Those in the management and professional group would have their contract offers decided by the Chief Secretary to the Government, while the PSD director-general was authorised to extend the contract for lecturers in Grade 45 and below.

There are 20 public universities in the country.

Ismail said the managements of all public universities should adhere to the rules before appointing the retirees. These were:

• that the university management could not get serving lecturers to fill the posts;

• those appointed should have completed their service until their mandatory retirement age;

• appointees were medically certified fit;

• they had clean service records and no criminal record;

• they adhered to provisions under the Official Secrets Act and agreed to sign the Aku Janji (I Pledge) document;

• they had sufficient experience/expertise as required by the university; and

• they be employed on the same salary grade but a step lower or higher depending on whether he fulfilled the criteria set by the university.

“The salary should be based on the last drawn salary and not on pension adjustments announced by the Government after the individual retired,” he said.

Those who had obtained foreign citizenship or had opted for earlier retirement were not eligible.

“Individuals who left government service following the corporatisation or privatisation of the departments where they were employed earlier would also not be considered,” he said.

Ismail said the PSD would conduct regular checks on the universities to ensure they complied with the conditions on the employment of these lecturers.

“This privilege can be withdrawn any time if we discover irregularities,” he added.