E. Kalimantan govt to be streamlined

Rusman, The Jakarta Post, Samarinda, East Kalimantan

The East Kalimantan provincial government is planning to streamline its bureaucracy by moving 5,629 of a total of 6,769 civil servants out of the administration over the next five years.

The policy is aimed at creating an efficient, effective and able bureaucracy, a senior government official said on Friday.

"We hope that we will only need to employ some 1,100 civil servants by 2009," said Ibnu Nirwani, the deputy head of the Governance Administration Section at the provincial government.

The reduction will be carried out in several ways, according to Ibnu. First, the provincial government will offer early retirement to some of the older civil servants. Second, it will not extend the pension period of the civil servants and third, the provincial government will transfer many other civil servants to regencies and municipalities in the province.

The last point, however, requires cooperation and approval from the respective administrations, he said.

Ibnu said that currently, the government was studying those areas of the provincial government that most need to be streamlined.

The provincial government is also studying the criteria of civil servants who need to be "laid off", he said.

"The process will begin immediately," said Ibnu.

Herlan Agussalim, a councillor at the East Kalimantan legislature, warned the government that the plan would end up creating social unrest, unless the government dealt with it carefully. "It is a sensitive case," he said, referring to the possibility a massive demonstrations by dismissed workers.

He suggested that the government should not reduce the number of civil servants. He indicated that they could still be employed by giving them jobs in other areas of the government.