AN additional 4,000 staff are required to enable the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) to operate at its maximum level based on the Malaysian Maritime Strategic Plan 2040, according to a senior officer of MMEA.

Its deputy director-general (logistics) Maritime Vice-Admiral Datuk Saiful Lizan Ibrahim (picture) said the increase in staffing was necessary to keep pace with the acquisition of the agency’s assets and its responsibility to patrol the country’s waters.

“We have received assets but without the addition of staff; we lack manpower compared to existing assets. For example, taking the KM Arau ship, the positions should be filled by 56 people but we have only between 40 and 45 people because some have to be loaned to ships or boats that MMEA received without staffing.

“We have to operate the newly received vessels, causing us to take some of the existing staff. However, this does not affect the operations of existing ships, which are still running optimally,” he said.

Saiful Lizan said this to reporters after the end of Class II Maritime Training Parade Series 16/2021 at the Sultan Ahmad Shah Maritime Academy (AMSAS) here today.

Also present were Pahang MMEA director Maritime First Admiral Kamal Ariffin Jusoh and AMSAS director Maritime Captain R. Vincent.

The additional staffing requirement is already in the attention of the Public Service Department (PSD), said Saiful Lizan.

He said MMEA has been actively strengthening the aspect of human resource capability, which has reached 90.76 per cent of the total 5,303 posts approved, with 490 more posts to be filled by 2026.

At today’s ceremony, Saiful Lizan said, 179 trainees including 20 women completed the nine-month training starting last Dec 7, which was the first recruitment while the country was still in the COVID-19 pandemic phase.

They will undergo on-the-job training for four months on ships before being confirmed in service. — BERNAMA