KUANTAN: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) needs to beef up its manpower to some 9,000 personnel by 2040 to help handle the increasing number of assets and ensure effective monitoring to safeguard the country's waters.
MMEA deputy director-general (logistics) Datuk Saiful Lizan Ibrahim said currently the agency had received approval to fill 5,303 vacancies and aims to hire some 4,000 additional manpower to operate at the highest level based on the Malaysia Maritime Strategic Plan 2040 (MMST 2040).
"MMEA is in the midst of strengthening our human resources and we have submitted the request which is currently under the purview of the Public Service Department (PSD). The presence of some 9,000 personnel by 2040 will certainly help maximise our presence at sea and safeguard the sovereignty of the country's waters.
"With the arrival of new assets and several in the pipeline including boats and helicopters, we need more personnel on board to operate efficiently.
"However, there might be some delays for additional staffing due to the current economy and the same applies to other enforcement agencies as it requires huge financial implications," he told reporters after attending the passing-out parade of 159 MMEA officers at the Sultan Ahmad Shah Maritime Academy in Gebeng here today.
Saiful Lizan said 90 per cent of the 5,303 positions had been filled while another 490 vacancies would be taken up by 2026.
He said due to the growing number of assets handled by MMEA, there was an urgency to create more vacancies to be filled by officers of various ranks.
"The hiring of manpower is usually not done according to the number of assets received and owned by the agency. For example, a respective patrol vessel might require 56 staff to operate optimally but we have to reduce the manpower between 40 and 45 personnel on the respective asset and instead send the remaining personnel to handle other new assets received by the agency.
"We have to send out the personnel to handle our other assets which have to be also in operation, However, such a move has not affected our operations and we can still carry out enforcement and other duties as normal," he said.
Saiful Lizan said since MMEA had previously recruited former navy and marine police into the agency(during the setting up of MMEA), they had about 60 individuals retiring every year including some choosing early retirement.
On the hiring process, he said it was usually done depending on the number of vacancies provided by PSD and the need of certain positions, for example in the mechanical engineering or information technology unit.
On the Fast Interceptor Craft (FIC) combat boats, Saiful Lizan said MMEA had received all the 30 units with the final batch delivered on Aug 20 and the units had been deployed to the agency's base nationwide.