Unproductive civil servants may be laid off

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin said on Tuesday that the government was carefully considering a plan to lay off unproductive civil servants.

"Layoffs are possible. But we have to consider it carefully as on one hand it would require a gigantic budget, and on the other it might add to the number of unemployed," Feisal said in the East Java capital of Surabaya, as quoted by Antara, after chairing a meeting with regents, mayors and high-ranking officials of the East Java provincial administration.

He said the issue of laying off civil servants was a dilemma for the government.

"Actually, there would be no need to lay off these civil servants if they were aware that they are paid by the people and felt responsible for the enhancement of public services," he said.

The minister said the idea of laying off civil servants was first broached by Minister/National Development Planning Board chairman Kwik Kian Gie.

Kwik reportedly suggested laying off unproductive civil servants at a recent Cabinet meeting.

"The unproductive civil servants go to the office just to chitchat. Paying them is a waste of state money, and on their part it is a waste of opportunity to achieve something when they while away their time talking," Kwik was quoted as saying.

However, Feisal maintained that the number of civil servants in Indonesia was not excessive.

"With a population of 23 million, Malaysia has 900,000 civil servants. Indonesia has four million. So, by number, it is not excessive," the minister observed.

Feisal said the only problem was that the number of civil servants in Java was almost four times that of all of eastern Indonesia.

"So there is a need to achieve proportional distribution. Civil servants should be ready to work anywhere in the country," he said.