PUTRAJAYA (Aug 15): Administrative and diplomatic officers (PTD) must be “clean, efficient and trustworthy” to ensure the smooth running of the national administration, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

Outlining these three values, he said “clean” meant free from corruption, “efficient” meant being skillful and having the ability to do work, and “trustworthy” meant just that, being reliable.

These values of life were important because they could help resist cravings and doing things at one’s whims and fancies, he said at a town hall session attended by about 3,500 administrative and diplomatic officers (PTD) from various ministries, departments and agencies.

“Cravings can slow down work and increase cost, and all efforts to develop the country will be delayed.  We cannot succeed if we are not clean. This value of life will determine whether we fail or succeed,” he said.

Dr Mahathir, when he was the prime minister the first time, had introduced the ‘Clean, Efficient and Trustworthy’ slogan in April 1982 as a policy to be practised in the country.

Dr Mahathir said the ‘Clean, Efficient and Trustworthy’ slogan was introduced to be put into practice and not to be merely exhibited.

"In the past, when I was the Prime Minister, there was no problem because I could trust everyone. Now, however, there is instigation from certain quarters and there’s the problem of people being less trustworthy,” he said.

The Prime Minister explained “efficient” as the quality of doing a certain work or deed repeatedly with honesty that built the skill of the individual so much so that he or she could do the task with ease.

“Trust” was very important, he said, adding that one must never take what did not belong to one, and all work could be done quickly according to the stipulated rules and regulations.

"People who do everything according to the rules and hold firmly to being clean, not taken in by corruption, will succeed. When corruption becomes a culture of the people, there is no remedy,” he said, adding that there was corruption “above the table” and “under the table”.

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