Words have reverberated down the corridor of the State Civil Service that some officers are only willing to go on a course “because they want to please their bosses,” or because “there is nothing else to do in the office,” or just because they are being “nominated.”

These and other such remarks were revealed by the Deputy State Secretary, Datu Dr. Hatta Solhee when he officiated at the launching of the Executive Development Programme (EDP) at the State Government Complex, Simpang Tiga recently. The number of these officers may be small but such a trend can lead to a setback in the successful implementation of an efficient and effective Civil Service.

In its effort to improve the nation’s competitiveness, the Civil Service has embarked on creating an environment that will spur economic growth. The Civil Service has introduced various initiatives to improve the quality of its support services to enable the primary sector of the economy to achieve the national vision. The objective of the initiative is to create excellence in the Civil Service founded upon the core values of quality, productivity, innovation, integrity, accountability, discipline and professionalism.

Datu Dr. Hatta, who is the Deputy State Secretary for Administration and Human Resource, urged officers to be more proactive and show commit-ment in their job. “Success would at least mean that an officer who re-turned from a course of study can convince his su-perior on imple-menting part of the element of the course he had been through.”

He further added that officers must inculcate the habit of ‘curiosity’ by continually questioning the appropriateness or relevancy of the subject that they are confronted with so as to generate a more in-depth discussion amongst colleagues.

Datu Dr. Hatta observed that the role of the Civil Service especially at the management level is now increasingly shifted from maintenance and administration to that of managing and leading change. He said “not only are you in the management level expected to play the traditional role of the manager, which is basically planning, organising, leading and controlling but also as a mentor, coach, consultant and guide for your team.”

The EDP is a new series of core management programmes for the management and professional group in the Civil Service jointly developed by the Human Resource Development and Quality (HRDQ) Unit of the Chief Minister’s Depart-ment and the Centre for Modern Management (CMM). These programmes are conducted in colla-boration with Executive Skills and Develop-ment (ESD) Interna-tional and the Austra-lian Institute of Management - University of Western Australia at Perth.

The EDP aims to develop the executive skills of officers in Grade 3 with less than 5 years working experience in the public and private sector organisations. It presents the participants with up-to-date knowledge on the background of management, generic managerial processes and major functions and creates the condition for application of knowledge in the working environment.

The programme structure offers participants with 9 integrated modules comprising Total Wellness, Team Leadership, Managing Transition and Change, Strategic and Project Management in the Public Sector, Information Management, Public Sector Communication Management, Human Resource Management, Financial Management and Policy Sciences.

Upon completion of the programme of 21 days, participants will be awarded the Diploma in Management by the Australian Institute of Management, Perth, Western Australia.

Datu Dr. Hatta pressing the remote switch to activate the launching screen of the EDP.

Datu Dr. Hatta reminds civil servants to play an active and committed role in their profession.