Pension cuts did not do it
The Budget Center of the Legislative Yuan has recently been quoted in the media as saying that “the civil servant turnover rate has continued to increase over the last five years, from 0.72 percent in 2010 to 0.86 percent in 2016.”
Although the trend is clearly there, there are about 350,000 civil servants in the nation, so an increase of only 0.14 percentage points over five years translates into just more than 400 individuals, across all levels of government — or perhaps one person leaving from each section over a five-year period. Therefore, it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that civil servants are leaving in droves because cuts to retirement benefits are making working in the civil service less attractive.
The contention, as some academics have suggested, that this trend might well be detrimental to the objective of improving the caliber of our civil servants, is even more tenuous. If it is indeed the case that, in our sprawling civil service system, the loss of not even 1 percent of personnel is to have an effect on the caliber of service, then it is difficult to maintain confidence in the training quality.
To put it another way, if the employee turnover rate in companies worldwide was actually under 1 percent per annum, it would be said that the companies were doing something right.
To look at it more negatively, it might be said that the nation’s bureaucracy is hardly dynamic, but it is just as concerning that civil servants, hidden away in the safe confines of the state mechanism, are out of touch with ordinary people.
If these civil servants are willing to venture out from that safety into the private sector, this suggests that the conditions of the private sector and the remuneration it offers are as good or better than those offered in the public sector — and that there are even more opportunities there.
From the perspective of both the government and the private sector, this can only be a good thing. The only thing worth being concerned about here is whether there is bad money chasing out the good.
Chen Wen-ching
Hsinchu City
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