Government to heed civil service affairs

JAKARTA (JP): The government is determined to pay more attention to civil servant development in a bid to help improve efficiency, professionalism and services to the public.

More attention is significantly needed to ease further pressure on the government due to uncontrolled recruitment of civil servants, a coordination meeting on peoples' welfare said on Wednesday.

During the meeting, the State Ministry of Administrative Reforms and the Institute of State Personnel Administration set the qualifications for recruitment and screening.

State Minister of Administrative Reforms M. Feisal Tamin said after the meeting that this determination was expected to reduce collusion in civil servant recruitment.

"That's why we still find inefficiency and unprofessionalism in the way civil servants work. This condition has led to widespread corruption, collusion and nepotistic practices, where civil servants are no longer sensitive to the public's poor economic and social condition.

"This condition also generates the high cost of the economy which in the end will decrease people's faith in the government," he said, adding that it would affect the government's authority.

Feisal reiterated that several strict measures would be taken in the near future to correct the recent condition, including the review of all legal measures and other regulations and presidential decrees issued on civil servant affairs.

He said that he had instructed all state institutions to submit data and track records of their civil servants to enable his office to make crosscheck appraisals on their remuneration, promotion, salary or even dismissal.

The government has also determined to go with the minus growth recruitment system of civil servants to reach the ideal number of less than 2 percent from the entire population of 210 million, except for particular institutions which need more employees.

"The number of new recruits is designed to be less than those entering their retirement age. This year we will prioritize recruitments to be medical practitioners, teachers who are desperately needed in remote areas, wardens, judges, prosecutors and others for strategic institutions," Feisal said.

Coordinating Minister for Peoples' Welfare Jusuf Kalla said that within the last six months, the government had succeeded in reducing the number of civil servants from over 4 million in March to 3.9 million this month.

"We're focusing on service, not the quantity of civil servants," he said.

"The government will design a new system where civil servants will have a role in maintaining the nation's integrity," Jusuf said. (bby)