Latest news with #civilservants
Malay Mail
21 hours ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
In birthday message, King reminds civil servants loyalty means trust and integrity — not blind worship
KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — His Majesty, Sultan Ibrahim, the King of Malaysia, today expressed his appreciation of the Madani Government and its civil servants, who have worked hard to manage the country's economy and development. Sultan Ibrahim said the success of the recent Asean Summit was proof of the country's leadership's ability to strengthen regional and international cooperation. 'Although there are those who underestimate Malaysia's capabilities, with hard work and a spirit of cooperation, especially by civil servants, all challenges and obstacles have been successfully overcome,' said His Majesty. Sultan Ibrahim was speaking during the Royal Address at the Investiture Ceremony for the year 2025 in conjunction with the King's official birthday celebration at Istana Negara. Also present was Her Majesty, Raja Zarith Sofiah, the Queen of Malaysia. Present at the ceremony were Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil and Cabinet Ministers. Sultan Ibrahim also reminded civil servants to provide excellent service and practise the second principle of the Rukun Negara, which is 'Loyalty to the King and the Country'. 'Loyalty does not mean worship, but honesty and trust in carrying out the duties and responsibilities given, and not betraying the country and the people's trust,' said His Majesty. The King stressed that civil servants must be free from the influence of political parties, be neutral and always prioritise the interests of the country and the people. 'Government officials must ensure that every decision made is in accordance with the conditions and regulations set, not according to the dictates of politicians. 'Every expenditure must also be closely controlled, and cannot be used as desired, by ministers or members of Parliament, to fish for votes, to the point of causing the government's debt to increase,' said the King. Sultan Ibrahim also called on all enforcement agencies to carry out their duties with full integrity so that the people do not lose trust and continue to respect the uniform they wear. — Bernama
Times
a day ago
- Business
- Times
AI could free 30,000 civil servants from routine admin, study finds
Nearly 30,000 civil servants could be freed from carrying out routine admin every year if AI is rolled out across Whitehall, a government study has suggested. More than 20,000 civil servants across Whitehall took part in a three-month trial to use generative AI for help with tasks such as drafting documents, summarising meetings, and handling emails. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said this saved the equivalent of giving 1,130 full-time workers out of the 20,000 a full year back every year. Extrapolated across the whole civil service workforce of 514,395 people, the trial suggests 29,063 could be freed up for other work using AI. It comes as a study from the Alan Turing Institute found AI could support up to 41 per cent of tasks across the public sector. The artificial intelligence institute found that teachers spend nearly 100 minutes a day on lesson planning but up to 75 per cent of this could be supported by AI, while civil servants spend about 30 minutes daily on emails, where it is believed AI could cut this effort by more than 70 per cent. Civil servants in the government trial used AI to cut through jargon and streamline consultations, while work coaches utilised it to speed up support for jobseekers. They used tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot to assist with drafting documents, summarising lengthy emails, updating records, and preparing reports. Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, will highlight the results alongside Sir Tony Blair at the SXSW London festival on Monday. The two will discuss reimagining government and public service delivery in the age of AI. Last month, a separate government trial found AI is more impartial than civil servants in analysing responses to new policies and consultations. A new AI tool to sort responses to public consultations found that about 75,000 days of work could be saved, while civil servants themselves said it removed opportunities for them to 'project their own preconceived ideas' into processes and 'takes away the bias and makes it more consistent'. • Consult, the new tool that will be used across government, is part of Humphrey — a bundle of AI tools being used across Whitehall and named after Sir Humphrey Appleby, the fictional permanent secretary in Yes Minister. The tool categorises responses under broad headings and assigns them based on whether they agree or disagree with proposals or if they are unclear. At present this is done manually by civil servants who comb through about 500 consultations a year, with responses in the thousands. The tool will also help with the increasing number of template responses to consultations organised by campaign groups. However officials also said there was a rise in the number of campaigning organisations that encouraged people to use AI to write consultation responses, which could lead to a situation where AI is analysing responses written using trial of Consult was used to analyse responses to a Scottish government consultation on cosmetic procedures. Testers found that the majority of the time the AI agreed with what a human reviewer would have said. Officials who worked with Consult on the test said they were 'pleasantly surprised' that AI analysis provided a 'useful starting point' in its initial analysis, with others noting that it ultimately 'saved [them] a heck of a lot of time' and allowed them to 'get to the analysis and draw out what's needed next'. Kyle said: 'These findings show that AI isn't just a future promise — it's a present reality. Whether it's helping draft documents, preparing lesson plans or cutting down on routine admin, AI tools are saving civil servants time every day. That means we can focus more on delivering faster, more personalised support where it really counts.'
Arab News
3 days ago
- Climate
- Arab News
Rescue operations underway after Nigeria flooding kills at least 115
ABUJA: Search-and-rescue operations continued in Nigeria Saturday after flash flooding in the central west killed at least 115 people, President Bola Tinubu said, as officials warned the toll was expected to rains late Wednesday through early Thursday washed away and submerged dozens of homes in and around the town of Mokwa, located near the Niger were swept into the river and carried downstream, complicating efforts to compile a death toll, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, in an overnight post on social media, said that security forces were being sent to help first responders, while 'relief materials and temporary shelter assistance are being deployed without delay.'Buildings collapsed and roads were inundated in the town, located more than 350 kilometers (215 miles) by road from the capital Abuja, an AFP journalist in Mokwa observed services and residents searched through the rubble as floodwaters flowed alongside.'Some bodies were recovered from the debris of collapsed homes,' Husseini said, adding that his teams would need excavators to retrieve said many were still missing, citing a family of 12 where only four members had been accounted for as of Tanko, 29, a civil servant, pointed to a house he grew up in, telling reporters: 'We lost at least 15 from this house. The property (is) gone. We lost everything.'The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said that the Nigerian Red Cross, local volunteers, the military and police were all aiding in the rainy season, which usually lasts six months, is just getting started for the usually caused by heavy rains and poor infrastructure, wreaks havoc every year, killing hundreds of people across the west African have also warned that climate change is fueling more extreme weather Nigeria, the floods are exacerbated by inadequate drainage, the construction of homes on waterways and the dumping of waste in drains and water channels.'This tragic incident serves as a timely reminder of the dangers associated with building on waterways and the critical importance of keeping drainage channels and river paths clear,' NEMA said in a least 78 people have been hospitalized with injuries, the Red Cross chief for the state, Gideon Adamu, to the Daily Trust newspaper, thousands of people have been displaced and more than 50 children in an Islamic school were reported Nigerian Meteorological Agency had warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria's 36 states, including Niger state, between Wednesday and 2024, more than 1,200 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced in at least 31 out of Nigeria's 36 states, making it one of the country's worst flood seasons in decades, according to media reported that more than 5,000 people have been left homeless, while the Red Cross said two major bridges in the town were torn children played in the flood waters Friday, heightening the possibility of exposure to water-borne diseases, with at least two bodies lying there, covered in banana leaves and printed ankara how she escaped the raging waters, Sabuwar Bala, 50, a yam vendor, told reporters: 'I was only wearing my underwear, someone loaned me all I'm wearing now. I couldn't even save my flip-flops.''I can't locate where my home stood because of the destruction,' she said.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Jimmy Kimmel on Elon Musk's Doge tenure: ‘He came, he chainsawed, we bled, he left'
With most late-night hosts on vacation, Jimmy Kimmel celebrates the end of Elon Musk's term in Washington and riffs on the new Taco nickname for Donald Trump. Jimmy Kimmel celebrated a big announcement on Thursday evening: Elon Musk, Donald Trump's head of the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge), posted on X that he would officially step down from his post and leave Washington DC. 'We're just happy that your time as a special government employee has come to an end,' Kimmel said. 'Elon had a remarkable 130-day stint in government,' he continued, speaking of Musk's highly controversial and much-loathed stint of firing civil service workers. 'He came, he chainsawed, we bled, he left. When he started, he promised to save us a trillion dollars, now he says Doge will probably only save about $160bn. Or as most everyone else says, he probably cost us hundreds of billions of dollars.' Officials from the Internal Revenue Service have said that cuts at the agency will result in a minimum of $500bn in uncollected taxes this year. 'But here's the thing: politics isn't about money,' said Kimmel. 'It isn't about success, it's not about failure. It's about the lives of the civil servants you destroy along the way. That's what is most important.' 'And Elon promised that Doge's work will go on,' he added. 'Similar to how the empire continued killing ewoks after the emperor died.' Now that he has left Washington, Musk can 'return to his primary job', Kimmel said, 'which is destroying companies and inseminating every woman in sight'. And it creates a problem for Trump, as he 'doesn't have anybody to take the blame for him anymore'. Trump is currently blaming the Court of International Trade, which ruled unanimously this week that he does not have the authority to enact his so-called 'reciprocal tariffs' on most countries. 'The DoJ claims that stopping these tariffs would take away Trump's leverage in trade negotiations and embolden other countries to take advantage of them,' Kimmel explained. 'Basically, the court pulled down his pants and showed China his little mushroom, and they're mad.' Since taking office in January, Trump has changed his tariffs policy more than 50 times, 'as any stable genius would', Kimmel quipped. The flip-flopping has led to a nickname making the rounds on Wall Street: Taco, an acronym for Trump Always Chickens Out. 'You're not going to believe it – he doesn't like the nickname at all,' Kimmel laughed. But it seems to be catching on, at least according to Kimmel's search of Taco-themed AI images on social media. 'How does it feel to be on the other end of the nickname game?' Kimmel wondered. 'Not great, does it? The only thing that would make it worse is if somebody changed the lyrics to a song by his beloved Village People to drive it home.' And with that, Kimmel introduced a Trump montage featuring 'Taco Man' to the tune of Macho Man.
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Are workplaces in Malaysia ready to welcome older workers?
Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@ or filling in this Google form . Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification I refer to the article , 'Malaysians slam plan to raise civil servant retirement age to 65: 'let them rest'' (May 21). In Malaysia, the retirement age for civil servants and private-sector employees has been adjusted several times. In 1951, the mandatory retirement age was set at 55 years. It was raised to 56 in 2001, 58 in 2008, then 60 in 2012. Now there is a suggestion to raise it to 65 – a substantial leap. While some argue that such a move would allow experienced workers to remain in the workforce, there are also concerns about the declining physical and cognitive abilities of older people and the potential accident risks this brings. Raising the retirement age could contribute to an increase in workplace and traffic accidents. Age-related changes such as weakened muscles, joint stiffness, reduced agility and decreased stamina can make it harder for seniors to perform tasks safely in industrial settings. Balancing problems resulting in falls are also a significant cause of injury to older adults. Many seniors also experience chronic health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, which can affect their ability to perform work safely. At the same time, cognitive decline could affect their decision-making and reaction time.
