(Sarawak Tribune; July 19th, 2005)

KUCHING: The State government agencies have been urged to fully utilise the eRecruitment system in support of the government’s vision to be a fully Electronic Government (EG) by 2008.

In making this call, the director of Information Communication Technology Unit (ICTU) of the Chief Minister’s Department, William Patrick Nyigor said not many agencies were utilising this system at the moment.
"The various issues regarding the online recruitment system should not be a hindrance for them to fully utilise it. Instead, the concerns should be forwarded to the right parties to enable future enhancements that would help to improve the system," he said when launching the eRecruitment User Workshop held at a leading hotel here, recently.

The half-day workshop was jointly organised by Public Service Commission of Sarawak (PSC) and Sarawak Information Systems Sdn Bhd (SAINS), with the aim to gather feedback from State government agencies on issues and ways to further enhance the system.

Nyigor also revealed that since its launch in 2003, the eRecruitment usage has gradually picked up among the new generations of job applicants, thus increasing the number of public users.

"ICTU has been progressive in assisting many government agencies to start using ICT in their work management and processes. We will continue giving them our support, providing the agencies also take the initiative to utilise the systems provided,” said Nyigor.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of PSC, Sulaiman Narawi said in his speech, “We have received tremendous response from the government agencies in the State, and also public users of the eRecruitment system."

He added that while some are encouraging feedbacks, there are also some setbacks especially in the rural areas.

"While we would wish to fully implement the eRecruitment system in place of the SPA forms and OMR forms, we are still considerate to those who have facility problems and those who are still unsure of the system,” he said.

Haji Sulaiman however was optimistic that these problems would be solved soon, and that the right parties responsible, would be able to change the mindset of public users to use the eRecruitment system.

A total of 12 government agencies attending the workshop are users who manage the eRecruitment system to recruit, shortlist and interview applicants for job openings at their respective agencies.

They were PSC, Public Works Department, Drainage and Irrigation Department, Human Resource Management Unit of the Chief Minister’s Department, State Welfare Department, State Attorney General Office, State Treasury Department, Ministry of Environment and Public Health, Land and Survey Department, Kuching Water Board, Jabatan Kehakiman Syariah Sarawak, and Jabatan Agama Islam Sarawak.

The Chief Executive Officer of SAINS, Teo Tien Hiong in his welcoming speech, said that the eRecruitment system would continue to be improved and enhanced in the future to offer better services to its users and also to the public. He added that the workshop was held not only to discuss the features and benefits of the system, but also to address the best practices among the State government agencies.

The eRecruitment system is fully developed and supported by SAINS. Each users from the State government agencies would be given access to the system to receive and process applications for their own job advertisements using the online format.

Applications for jobs through eRecruitment can be made via http://www.e-recruitment.gov.my, or www.myonestopsarawak.com.my. The public can still continue to submit their job applications by filling in the “Borang SPA Negeri 2” which is sold at RM3 perset.