Civil Service in Malaysia - Public Agencies

Public Agencies

Public agencies are agencies in the Public Service at the Federal, State and the Local Government levels. Federal agencies consist of Ministries, Federal Departments and Federal Statutory Bodies. Each Ministry is headed by a Minister and the executive officer is known as the Secretary General. The Prime Minister’s Department is also a ministry. Typically there will be a number of departments and possibly one or more statutory bodies as well under a ministry. Head of departments are given the title Director General. Head of statutory bodies are called chairman while the chief executive officer who is a civil servant is called the General Manager. There are statutory bodies headed by the executive chairman who also functions as the General Manager as is the case in the Employees’ Provident Fund.

State Agencies consist of state departments, state statutory bodies and local governments (City, Municipal and District Councils).

The term Public Service does not include special institutions like the Judiciary, Public Service Commissions, the Election Commission and like institutions whose members are appointed by the Yang DiPertuan Agong (King). Nevertheless, the organizations providing support or secretarial services to these institutions are public agencies whose officers and staff are from the Public Service. The Public Service also excludes off-budget agencies which are formed under the Companies Act or the Society Act and do not follow policies and procedures of personnel management in the public sector.