Malaysia Saves 334,000 Litres of Fuel After One Week of Implementing WFH

Kuala Lumpur (ANTARA) - The Malaysian government estimates it can save at least 334,000 litres of fuel after implementing a work-from-home (WFH) policy for civil servants over one week.

“From 15 April until yesterday (Tuesday, 21 April), the estimated savings achieved reached 334,000 litres of fuel; equivalent to savings of 678,000 ringgit (Rp2.9 billion),” said the Malaysian government spokesperson and Minister of Communications Fahmi Fadzil during a press conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on Wednesday.

Fahmi stated, after attending a cabinet meeting, based on a report from the Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar, that the number of civil servants who have registered for work from home has reached 155,000 people to date.

“This includes increasing the number of online meetings, that is, by reducing face-to-face meetings; in addition, they are asked to reduce programmes and overseas travel and to prioritise the use of facilities owned by agencies or the government in implementing training programmes,” Fahmi explained.

Prime Minister Anwar also reminded the Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia to endeavour to collect data from the private sector regarding the implementation of WFH in order to see the overall savings that can be achieved from the programme.

The WFH implementation provisions have been regulated through the Public Service Department (JPA) of Malaysia, including for civil servants in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, the Federal Territory of Putrajaya, and the State of Selangor; as well as for all civil servants in the capital of the Malaysian State and civil servants whose one-way distance from office to home is more than 8 kilometres.

The WFH policy in Malaysia does not apply to civil servants in the security and defence sectors, health, and education.

For states that designate Sunday as a non-working day, WFH is carried out on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all day.

The implementation of WFH in Malaysia is also carried out situationally according to the needs of the agency and with strict monitoring mechanisms.

Malaysian civil servants are required to register their homes, which become the WFH location, in the Human Resource Information Management System (HRMIS).

Furthermore, while working from home, Malaysian civil servants must report their presence through the Electronic Task Operation Reporting System (SPOT-Me) every hour. This is done so that superiors can monitor the presence of their employees at the registered location.