A report in the Public Services Department website revealed that a total of 166,659 vacancies available since June last year have yet to be filled.

The report entitled, 'Information on positions and vacancies in public sector', prepared by the Organisational Development Division, revealed that there were 1,142,783 civil servants in total.

When the vacancies are filled, the total civil service strength will stand at 1,366,079.

The Defence Ministry has the highest number of vacancies - a whopping 53,389.

From the report, only 117,973 positions out of 171,362 were filled in the ministry helmed by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

The Education Ministry and Health Ministry are next with 47,109 and 29,503 vacancies respectively.

Meanwhile, Federal Territories Ministry, which is the smallest ministry, had the least vacancies followed by the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry and the International Trade and Industry Ministry.

The largest ministry is the Education Ministry with 448,319 positions.

The report defines the public sector as to include the armed forces, judicial services, public services, police, federal and state authorities and education services.

76.4 percent of the positions are under the federal state followed by statutory bodies (both federal and state), state and local authorities.

The report also revealed that there was a 299, 673 or 21.9 percent increase of civil service positions from 1990 to June 2006.

The ratio of the country's civil service to the population is proportionately higher than other countries at 4.68 per cent.

Pay hike on July 1

This ratio comparatively doubles that of our neighbours as reported in Oriental Daily which showed Thailand's ratio was 2.06%, Indonesia (1.79%) and Philippines (1.81%) in 2000.

These figures prompted opposition politician Tony Pua to criticise the government for its failure to reduce the size of the civil service.

"(It) could be verily argued that the privatisation exercise by the government was a failure in maintaining a lean and efficient government for the civil service is today more than double its intended size."

"The increase in pay will be a waste of public funds, if the move is not accompanied by a corresponding increase in civil service productivity," he was quoted as saying.

The size of the civil service has recently come under scrutiny after Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced a hefty pay rise for civil servants.

Effective July 1, Abdullah said government servants will get a pay raise of between 7.5 percent and 42 percent.

The cost of living allowance, or Cola, will also be increased by 100 percent while members of the police and the armed forces will receive 20 percent over and above the announced increase in pay.