Fire lazy civil servants: Minister

Fire lazy civil servants: Minister

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Civil servants who are absent for 12 days consecutively
without notice must be fired, according to State Minister of
Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin.

"If no harsh measures are taken against them, it's not good
enough," Feisal said in a meeting with West Nusa Tenggara
officials in Mataram on Sunday evening.

West Nusa Tenggara Governor Harun Al Rasyid, a number of top
provincial officials, councillors and religious leaders attended
the meeting.

The minister said at the meeting that heads of state
departments and agencies had to reprimand their subordinates, who
were often absent without permission.

If civil leaders did not know if their subordinates were
absent for 12 days or more consecutively without notice, those
leaders had to be dismissed too.

The minister also said that governors and regents also had to
be monitored, at least once every six months, to find out if they
really worked or not.

He did not specify exactly who should monitor governors and
regents.

Governors and regents are under the supervision of the
Ministry of Home Affairs.

"Our country is currently sick. If civil servants, governors
and regents work as they like, this country will go to the dogs,"
he was quoted by Antara as saying.

He said Indonesia currently had around four million civil
servants, insufficient to serve some 210 million people.

Ideally, Indonesia needed at least five million civil
servants, or 2.5 percent of the total population.

With such a below-par number of civil servants, he said, they
and government officials had to be dedicated to serve the nation.

It was not clear, however, if Feisal's statement would be
followed by a directive or even a ministerial decree aimed at
improving the performance of civil servants.

Previously, Feisal announced the government's austerity
program and the directive for officials to lead more modest
lifestyles.

The program included limitations on the use of paper and
telephones in offices. State officials were also asked not to
wear suits.

The program was met with enthusiasm in the beginning, when it
was introduced in late December, but not long after that, it was
already being ignored by state officials.