Changes to Civil Service salaries to be announced on April 9
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 22 March 2007 2056 hrs

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Civil service salaries are set to go up and details of this will be announced in Parliament on the 9th of April.

The salary review will be explained by Mr Teo Chee Hean who is the Minister-in-Charge of Civil Service matters in the Prime Minister's Office.

This was revealed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Administrative Service dinner on Thursday.

In his speech, Mr Lee said the government is also reviewing salaries for the political, judicial and statutory appointment holders.

He added that it is critical for Singapore to keep their salaries competitive so that the country can bring in a continuing flow of able and successful people to be ministers and judges.

The Prime Minister arrived at the Administrative Dinner with a clear message for his audience.

He said Singapore's Administrative Service is the core of the public service as it plays a central role in bringing about first class governance for the country.

And for the public service to remain an attractive employer, it must keep pace with the private sector.

The Prime Minister noted that salaries in the private sector have been progressing, with many good and well-paying jobs created in the last two years.

And demand for Singaporeans is not just coming from the local economy.

Mr Lee said: "We know from head-hunters that the entire top managements of some of our agencies are being targeted. The Middle Eastern countries are particularly interested. They have studied Singapore's success story. They want to tap our people to join them and replicate the miracle, and money is no object.

"Even foreign workers who have worked in Singapore shipyards here are in demand in the Gulf. We even received a feeler from one Middle Eastern country to buy the whole of JTC! All this will have an impact on the Public Service."

Mr Lee explained that there are two private sector salary benchmarks for the Administrative Service.

The lowest Superscale grade is where officers in the early to mid-30s enter the senior ranks.

For this group, the benchmark has climbed again but not for the second benchmark which is for the most senior Permanent Secretaries.

For this senior group, the yardstick is based on two-thirds of the median income of the eight top-earning professionals in six professions.

The private sector benchmark now stands at $2.2 million.

But in the Administrative Service, the salaries for this category has remained the same as the level in the year 2000.

It stands at $1.21 million, which is 55 percent of the private sector salaries.

Mr Lee said: "This is an urgent problem. We have experienced on previous occasions the painful consequences of responding too slowly when the private sector surged ahead. For example in the early 1990s, the Administrative Service lost entire cohorts of good officers. This showed up in the age profile of the Service - broad at the young and older age groups, but narrow at the mid- to late-30s range. We took many years to recover from the loss. This must not happen again.

"This is why the government is currently reviewing Civil Service remuneration schemes. The review will cover the Administrative Service as well as other services that are lagging behind the private sector, because every service is important, and each must be able to attract and retain good people."

Mr Lee reminded the Administrative Service officers that what they do affect how Singaporeans work, live and play.

And if everyone does their job well, the result will be a Singapore that everyone can be proud of. - CNA/ch