The director-general of public services, Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz, said those who fail in their performance evaluation would face disciplinary action.

“If the department head fails to improve, they may not receive their annual increment, or be considered for promotion, or they might remain in their current role,” he said.

“If they cannot meet their responsibilities within a year, a transfer may be necessary,” he said.

Wan Ahmad Dahlan said the new system, which will include heads of departments and secretaries-general of ministries, will be fully implemented this year, after a pilot phase in 13 ministries from February to September last year.

He said the Demerit Performance Evaluation (DEEP) system is intended to be a more progressive and fair system as it assesses performance on a monthly basis instead of annually.

He acknowledged that some government projects have failed or were not completed on time due to a lack of monitoring, adding that the DEEP evaluation is designed to address such issues.

Wan Ahmad Dahlan said that under DEEP, a department head may start with a score of 100, but delays in a project could result in a demerit, causing their score to drop to 98.

While the department head’s score may drop further if poor performance persists, it could rise if improvements are made or governance measures are followed.