To meet the goal of downsizing the number of civil servants from 180,000 to 176,000, government employees who opt for early retirement between July and December will receive a maximum of seven months’ salary on top of their pension, a Cabinet official said yesterday.
Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) Deputy Chairman Sung Yu-hsieh (宋餘俠) said the regulations stipulated in the amendment to the Provisional Statute on the Adjustment of the Functions, Businesses, and Organizations of the Executive Yuan (行政院功能業務與組織調整暫行條例) were expected to be approved by the Cabinet late this month.
To meet President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) election platform of restructuring governmental agencies to improve efficiency, the RDEC was close to finalizing an amendment to the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan (行政院組織法) that would help the Executive Yuan’s 37 agencies cut their workforce by by one-third by the end of next year, he said.
Pending deliberation was a plan to merge the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC) with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the idea has met with strong opposition from overseas citizens whose population was estimated to be in the millions by the OCAC.
Another unresolved matter was whether to turn the Consumer Protection Commission into a business unit under the Executive Yuan.
Sung said the bill on the preferential retirement measure would be sent to the Cabinet for approval together with an amendment on the government restructuring plan after the two controversies are settled, which is expected around the middle of this month.
Under the proposal, civil servants, except for teachers and employees in public schools and state-owned enterprises, would qualify for the preferential retirement measure under three circumstances: having completed 20 years of civil service, having completed 10 years of service and reached the age of 50, or being a senior official who has reached the highest salary bracket for at least three years.
The Central Personnel Administration has proposed setting a ceiling for the total number of public servants working for the central government — including the five government branches and Presidential Office — at 176,000, down from 180,000, within six years.
The RDEC said it wished to see streamlining as early as 2011, provided the legislature approved the reform proposal by the end of this year.
Civil servants who apply for early retirement in June, or seven months ahead of the scheduled date, would receive seven months’ salary in extra pension. The extra pension given to civil servants who apply for early retirement by December would receive the equivalent of their salary for the remaining number of months in the year.
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