Acting on modernising public admin
By Sheila Ramalingam
The Government Service Efficiency Commitment Act 2025 (Act 867) came into force on 1 December 2025. The Act marks a significant and commendable milestone in Malaysia’s ongoing efforts to modernise public administration, reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, and improve the quality of government service delivery. It applies to the Federal Government and federal Government entities, although State Governments and local authorities may participate on a voluntary basis.
At the heart of the Act are the Principles of Commitment set out in section 5. These principles require Government service delivery to be efficient, effective, and easily accessible; grounded in ethical, accountable, and transparent governance; supported by continuous structural reform to reduce bureaucracy and adapt to technological change; and guided by responsibility in regulatory effectiveness, particularly in reducing unnecessary or excessive regulatory burdens. These principles are operationalised through a firm and measurable obligation imposed on every Government entity.
Under section 6, each entity must, at three-year intervals, review its existing rules and procedures and reduce its regulatory burden by at least 25%. This is not a vague policy aspiration, but a quantifiable and time-bound statutory requirement. Parliament has thus sent a strong signal that regulatory reform must yield tangible outcomes, rather than merely producing reports, audits, or internal reviews that do not translate into real change. Equally important is the Act’s safeguard against the re-accumulation of bureaucracy once it has been reduced.
Section 6(3) introduces a clear “one-in, one-out” rule: no new regulatory instrument may come into operation unless at least one existing regulatory instrument on the same subject matter is revoked. This mechanism compels Government entities to exercise discipline before issuing new directives, circulars, guidelines, or procedures, and directly addresses the long-standing problem of regulatory layering, where outdated or overlapping administrative instruments continue to burden both the public and the civil service long after their usefulness has passed.
The Act also moves beyond rhetoric by embedding service performance measurement into the machinery of Government. The Chief Secretary to the Government is mandated to establish a service performance rating method that objectively and transparently measures efficiency and effectiveness, using clear criteria aligned with the Principles of Commitment. Crucially, the rating system is expressly improvement-oriented: it is designed to ensure that assessment results are used to enhance service quality rather than to punish underperformance.
This performance framework is reinforced by meaningful incentives. Section 10(5) provides that Government entities achieving the prescribed ratings may be considered for incentives and recognition. More significantly, section 10(6)(a) allows the Minister to use a Government entity’s service performance report as a criterion in determining the allocation of Federal Government funding.
This linkage between performance and financial allocation gives the Act real teeth and ensures that efficiency reforms are not merely symbolic. It also creates a powerful inducement for State Governments to participate voluntarily under section 11, as participating State entities may similarly be rated and considered for incentives and Federal financial allocations.
In this way, the Act promotes cooperative federalism through incentives rather than compulsion. Importantly, the Act recognises that efficiency reforms must be matched with accountability and oversight. Section 12 requires the preparation of a Government Service Efficiency Commitment Report every three years, which must be laid before the Dewan Rakyat.
This report is to include, among others, regulatory burden reduction performance, Government entity ratings, incentives awarded, and the performance of participating State entities. This mechanism ensures that efficiency commitments are not confined to the executive branch, but are subject to parliamentary scrutiny, thereby strengthening transparency and democratic accountability in public administration.
Taken together, these provisions make the Act a robust legislative framework for tackling red tape and bureaucratic inefficiency. It addresses not only the experience of the public and businesses interacting with the Government, but also the often-overlooked administrative burden placed on civil servants themselves. Excessive reporting requirements, duplicative procedures, and layers of approval consume time and resources that could otherwise be devoted to substantive service delivery and policy development.
In this regard, it should be noted that the persistence of complex procedures has done little to prevent corruption or administrative scandals within the civil service, a poignant reminder that excessive bureaucracy is not synonymous with effective oversight.
It is therefore hoped that all Government entities will approach the implementation of this Act with seriousness and in good faith, viewing it not as a compliance exercise but as an opportunity for genuine institutional reform. A leaner regulatory environment benefits everyone: the public receives faster and clearer services, while the public service becomes more focused, professional, and resilient.
In short, the Government Service Efficiency Commitment Act 2025 represents a clear policy choice: that efficiency, accountability, and measurable outcomes must become central pillars of Government operations rather than aspirational slogans. If implemented rigorously and consistently, it has the potential to deliver lasting improvements to Malaysia’s public service and to set a meaningful benchmark for future governance reforms.
Dr Sheila Ramalingam is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Universiti Malaya and Deputy Executive Director at UMLEAD and may be reached at sheila.lingam@um.edu.my