At least 15 government agencies have been told to stop hiring new staff, according to a report by Sin Chew Daily .

The report states that among the affected agencies are the education ministry, police and the armed forces.

This was based on a government circular titled "Optimum use of human resource initiative" dated April 22.

However, Public Service Commission (PSC) chairperson Mahmood Adam told the daily that "critical" government positions were still open to applicants.

He also confirmed that applicants who have been invited for interviews or pre-service training programmes before April 22 will not be affected.

Belt tightening?

Mahmood declined to reveal further details but added that vacancies advertised before April 22 have not been cancelled.

"Public Service Department (PSD) is the decision maker (in this matter), while PSC only implement the directive.

"So, (request for) details should be referred to the PSD," he said.

On May 2, whistleblower website Sarawak Report published excerpts of the circular, while claiming that this was an effort to tighten Putrajaya's belt.

At 1.4 million civil servants, which forms about 10 percent of the labour force, Malaysia has among the highest civil servants-to-population ratio in the world.

Since taking reigns in 2009, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak have been struggling to reduce the country's debts, weighed down by the ever increasing cost of running the government.

On April 1, the Najib administration had introduced the highly unpopular Goods and Services Tax (GST).