發布日期:2023-01-26 07:56:41
Vice Minister of Interior and Safety Han Chang-seob speaks during a press conference at Government Complex in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo
The government will redistribute approximately 1 percent of civil servants every year, as part of President Yoon Suk-yeol's "government manpower management plan" to streamline the central government and cut expenses, according to the interior ministry, Tuesday.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced the plan during a press conference at the Government Complex in Seoul, detailing measures to reassign 1 percent of the civil servants in every department each year to improve the efficiency of the government workforce.
According to the plan, each ministry will reduce its staff quota by 1 percent every year and form a pool of workers with the reduced workforce. Those in the pool will be reassigned to other ministries that are in need of additional workers, rather than hiring new staff.
The government estimates that approximately 1,500 to 2,000 workers are required every year, and that this demand can be covered by reassigning 1 percent of each department's quota of civil servants.
"Despite the changes in the administrative environment and declining population, the number of civil servants has been growing to stand at 1.16 million currently," vice minister Han Chang-seob said in a press conference. "This has been a great burden for the state coffer and caused inefficiency in administrative matters."
The number of civil servants has been gradually increasing throughout the previous administrations from 978,000 in the 2003-2008 Roh Moo-hyun administration, 990,000 in the 2008-2013 Lee Myung-bak administration, 1.032 million in the 2013-2017 Park Geun-hye administration and 1.163 million in the 2017-2022 Moon Jae-in administration.
President Yoon has been criticizing this trend, saying that streamlining the bulky government is an urgent task.
Following the plan, each ministry will conduct a review of its workforce and report the results to the interior ministry. Actual reassignment is anticipated to take place in the third quarter of this year.