By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, April 2: Rumours are rife that State Secretary Tan Sri Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani will be retiring this August and that Deputy State Secretary Datu Jaul Samion will be taking over the post.
It is also speculated that following his retirement, Mohamad Morshidi will be leading a significant government-linked company as its chairman.
“Tan Sri SS (State Secretary) will be leaving sooner than August because he has months of leave to clear.
“He will be leaving his office latest by May, where Datu Jaul will be taking over as Acting State Secretary to allow a smooth transition,” a source in the state civil service told DayakDaily.
Mohamad Morshidi has been leading the Sarawak civil service since August 2009. By August this year, he would have been State Secretary for exactly 10 years.
Attempts to contact Mohamad Morshidi failed as he is now on a working trip overseas with Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
But whether he is indeed retiring or not, the man’s career deserves to be penned down after having served the state civil service for 40 years.
Mohamad Morshidi started his civil service career as a director of Kuching North City Hall (DBKU). He was with DBKU for 18 years, from 1980 to 1998, before he was promoted to director of Human Resource Management in the Chief Minister’s Office, where he stayed for about three years.
In 2001, he was appointed as Permanent Secretary to the Social Development and Urbanisation Ministry, a post he held until 2005.
In January 2005, he became one of the most influential men in the civil service when he became director of the State Planning Unit, the unit responsible for the future development of Sarawak.
From 2006 to 2007, Mohamad Morshidi went one step higher when he was promoted to the post of Deputy State Secretary. Then in August 2009, he reached the pinnacle of the state civil service, at the age of 53.
Mohamad Morshidi is also a director in various national and local GLCs, such as Bintulu Port Sdn Bhd and Petroleum Nasional Berhad (Petronas).
Academically, he graduated with a Bachelor in Economics, majoring in Statistics, from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 1979.
He pursued a second degree in the USA, where he graduated with a Master of Science in Human Resource Administration from University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1998.
In 2006, he completed a Course in Senior Executive Fellows from Harvard University, USA. — DayakDaily
