Rp 80 trillion needed for fired discharged civil servants<\/p>\n
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The government would require the huge sum of up to Rp 80 trillion
\n(US$9.5 billion) to cover the severance payments of tens of
\nthousands of civil servants dismissed for being unproductive.<\/p>\n
Sofwan Chudhorie, a member of House of Representatives
\nCommission II on home affairs, from the National Awakening Party
\n(PKB) faction, said the amount would be earmarked for such
\npayments.<\/p>\n
\"The House budgetary committee will discuss soon with the
\nNational Development Planning Agency how to provide the funds,
\nand we hope that they will be ready in the next fiscal year,\"
\nSofwan told The Jakarta Post after a meeting with State Minister
\nof Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin.<\/p>\n
He was quick to add that the presence of a large number of
\nunderemployed civil servants was intolerable, as it would only
\nadd to the burden of the already cash-strapped government.
\n\"Reform of the bureaucracy must be achieved at all costs,\" he
\nemphasized.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the meeting, Minister Feisal told lawmakers that
\nthe government was mulling over a number of possible options that
\ncould be taken to gradually dismiss tens of thousands of civil
\nservants, all involving a huge sum of money to be withdrawn from
\ngovernment coffers.<\/p>\n
\"We have prepared all that is necessary for reform of the
\nbureaucracy; what we need now is provision of funds, which will
\nrequire approval from the House,\" Feisal said.<\/p>\n
He said that the funds would be earmarked for severance
\npayments to one percent to two percent of around 3.6 million
\ncivil servants across the country.<\/p>\n
\"I must concede that up to 55 percent of our civil servants do
\nnot perform their daily tasks properly,\" he added.<\/p>\n
A few schemes have already been devised by the government by
\nway of reform of the bureaucracy, such as golden handshakes for
\nthose who have worked for at least 20 years and who are older
\nthan 45.<\/p>\n
Bappenas chairman Kwik Kian Gie said recently that 55 percent
\nof civil servants across the country should be dismissed for not
\nperforming their daily tasks properly, and urged President
\nMegawati Soekarnoputri to embark on speedy reform of the
\nbureaucracy.<\/p>\n
Feisal has repeatedly complained that 60 percent of the
\ncountry's civil servants are both unproductive and unskilled, and
\nhas proposed laying off 40 percent of them. However, his proposal
\nwas rejected due to a lack of funds to cover severance payments.<\/p>\n
On Monday, he disclosed that the government had been paying
\nthe salaries of about 109,000 civil servants whose whereabouts
\nwere unknown.<\/p>\n
The government has been paying out more than Rp 111.7 billion
\nper month (US$13 million) in salaries to absentee employees.<\/p>\n
The figures surfaced after the government started a drive to
\nupdate the data on all civil servants as part of its attempts to
\nrevamp the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's bureaucracy was rated the worst in the world,
\naccording to an international survey published in July last year.<\/p>\n
Despite the inefficiency, Indonesia still lags behind other
\nneighboring countries in terms of ratio between civil servants
\nand total population. In Malaysia, civil servants are 3.68
\npercent of the total population and in Singapore the figure
\nstands at 2.48 percent. Civil servants here account for only 1.8
\npercent of the country's population of 215 million.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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