KUANTAN – An additional 4,000 staff are required to enable the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) to operate at its maximum level based on the Malaysian Maritime Strategic Plan 2040, according to a senior MMEA officer.
Deputy Director-General (Logistics) Datuk Saiful Lizan Ibrahim said the increase in staffing was necessary to keep pace with the acquisition of the agency’s assets and its responsibility to patrol the country’s waters.
"We have received assets but without the addition of staff; we lack manpower compared with existing assets. For example, positions for the KM Arau ship should be filled by 56 people but we have only between 40 and 45 people, because some have to be loaned to ships or boats that MMEA received without staffing.
“We have to operate the newly received vessels, causing us to take up some of the existing staff. However, this does not affect the operations of existing ships, which are still running optimally,” he said.
Saiful Lizan said this to reporters after the end of Class II Maritime Training Parade Series 16/2021 at the Sultan Ahmad Shah Maritime Academy (Amsas) here today.
Also present were Pahang MMEA director Kamal Ariffin Jusoh and Amsas director R. Vincent.
The need for additional staffing already has the attention of the Public Service Department, said Saiful Lizan.
He said MMEA has been actively strengthening human resource capability, which has reached 90.76% of the total 5,303 posts approved, with 490 more posts to be filled by 2026.
Saiful Lizan said today’s ceremony saw 179 trainees, including 20 women, complete the nine-month training stint which started last December 7, being the first recruitment batch while the country was still in the Covid-19 pandemic.
They will undergo on-the-job training for four months on ships before being confirmed in service. – Bernama, September 17, 2022
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