Provincial Gov’ts Add Staff Despite Falling Populations

Of 148 provincial areas who have seen drops in population, 145 have raised the number of staff over the past five years.

A Dong-A Ilbo analysis of data released by the Government Administration and Home Affairs Ministry has found that Naju, South Jeolla Province, was the only one of the 148 to reduce staff, cutting four positions. The Jongno ward of Seoul and Boseong County of South Jeolla Province kept their payrolls unchanged.

As of June last year, 246 provincial governments (16 city and 230 municipalities) had 280,887 staff, up from 248,141 in late 2002.

The number of staff at central government agencies increased from 576,000 to 604,000 over the same period.

The incoming administration has pledged to downsize the government, but cannot force provincial authorities to reduce staff. Article 112 of the Local Government Act stipulates that such governments have the right to set their own quotas for public officials.

Though the central government sets the labor budget, it cannot order provincial governments to follow its recommendations.

A provincial official said, “We have added staff to provide better service for residents. Our work has also increased since certain tasks of central government agencies have been transferred to local governments.”

A ministry analysis, however, said that out of the staff increase of 32,000, only 17,521 (53.5%) were for quality of life for residents. They included welfare workers (5,375), firefighters and disaster prevention personnel (6,240), police (127), officials working at town, village and neighborhood offices (2,674), and those dealing with culture, health and tourism (3,105).

Duties of the remaining 46.5% consisted of planning and coordination (1,942), administration and finance (3,421), industry and economy (3,139), environmental protection (1,149), city and housing (2,901), regional development (1,987), and parliamentary work (686).

Lee Ju-he of the Local Government Officials Development Institute said, “Most local governments seem to have competed in adding staff by citing as an excuse more work and duties transferred from the central government. It is weird that local governments that saw falling populations have rather increased the number of officials.”

tesomiom@donga.com parky@donga.com