U.S. to Cut Government Employee, to Introduce Merit Pay System

The U.S. President George W. Bush announced yesterday that he would launch a large-scale government reform that includes the cutback of the government employee, introduction of the merit pay system, expansion of opening of the government jobs to the civilians, and the maximization of the use of the information technology.

In his radio address, President Bush emphasized that ``people want top-quality service from the government, which they receive from the private sector. It is time to launch a reform to improve the competitiveness of 1.8 million government employee to the level of the private sector.``

The 14-point government plan announced by President Bush was named `management agenda`, reminding that Bush is the first U.S. president with MBA degree.

Regarding the cutback of the government employee, President Bush said, ``Although the previous [Bill Clinton] administration cut more than 300,000 government employees, human resource management is still ineffective because it was a general cutback ignoring the needs of each department. The government will induce retirement through $25,000 employee buyouts.`` ``The personnel management proposal, including the size of the personnel reduction, will be introduced after the Labor Day.`` added President Bush.

Along with this, President Bush said that ``the administration will replace the current 15-step General Schedule, which is based on time served, with merit pay system based on what they have accomplished. The administration will establish `pay banding standard` objectively evaluate job performance.``

President Bush said that ``the government will expand the hiring of civilians in the government jobs, which is currently 5 percent, by introducing the competition system in the government employment.``

President Bush also said, ``Although the government, as the biggest buyer of the information-communication equipment, purchased the equipment amounting to $45 billion, it is behind the private sector in terms of utilization. The government will reduce the excessive purchase by reexamining the utilization of the information technology for the realization of the electronic government.``

President Bush said that while appointing a chief operating officer (COO) for each agency for the large-scale government reform, he would evaluate the reform performance by meeting COOs regularly every month at the President`s Management Council.

mickey@donga.com