Gov`t to hire additional 500 civil servants for welfare, security

The Park Geun-hye administration has reportedly decided to increase civil servants by 500 this year to carry out the 140 national agendas such as “economic revival” to realize Creative Economy and stable livelihoods of people, and “people’s happiness” to achieve customized employment, welfare and a safe society.

According the presidential office and the Safety and Public Administration Ministry on Wednesday, the government received requests for manpower expansion required for implementation of 140 state agendas and 170 collaborative tasks needed to implement the philosophy of state administration. Based on the requests, it decided to increase the number of civil servants by 500 who are essential to efficiently implement the tasks. The exact number of civil servants to be increased will reportedly be determined after consultations with ministries and Cabinet meetings around late August or early September. As such, about 500 civil servants will likely be newly elected within this year’s second half.

The areas in which manpower will be increased are those for job creation and employment expansion, including attainment of a 70 percent employment ratio; reinforcement of a security management system; expansion of social welfare service; and reduction of underground economy; and establishment of justice in taxation, which President Park has emphasized.

It is considered unusual that the number of newly hired civil servants who will focus on the implementation of national agendas is increased in the first year of a new government’s inauguration. “It is a special case, in which manpower in all different ministries are adjusted comprehensively to ensure that implementation of national agendas is seamlessly conducted, separately from the routine expansion of manpower to fill posts that are newly added every year,” a government source said.

While increasing the total number of civil servants, the government has decided to minimize the scale of expansion by strictly managing the civil servant counts. As such, although different ministries demanded a total of more than 3,500 to carry out state agendas, the actual number of additional hires has been adjusted to around 500. “The government will try to fill demand for civil servants necessary to implement state agendas through adjustment of organizational systems and reallocation of human resources within the current quota of civil servants, and will only increase the number of civil servants who will be needed nevertheless,” a government source said. Hence, the expansion of civil servants will be announced in conjunction with adjustment of government organizations.

This move reportedly reflects the presidential office’s stance to refrain from recklessly increasing the number of civil servants, without boosting the efficiency of government operation, even if expansion of public manpower is inevitable. “Different ministries may have complaints that they lack manpower necessary to carry out national agendas, but unless manpower is expanded by the minimal level, it would be impossible to prevent budget from surging and manpower from growing exponentially,” said a source at the presidential office. Accordingly, the Park administration is set to scale down unnecessary organizations and manpower that are irrelevant to the implementation of state agendas by up to 1 percent (around 1,000) of the total civil servant quote at the end of each year during its five-year term in office.