Gov't bureaux remain overstaffed, claims poll By Xiao Fu (China Daily) Updated: 2006-02-10 05:30
Many government bodies should be further streamlined to improve efficiency,
according to a new survey.
The poll by the Beijing-based polling agency Horizon Group indicated that 67
per cent of people questioned believed some departments remained overstaffed
despite previous cutbacks.
But many people quizzed in the survey said some departments needed more
staff.
Bureaus in charge of general affairs, reform and development, financial
services and tourism should be streamlined, according to the majority of
respondents.
But public security, education, and communication agencies needed more
members of staff, they claimed.
The results were obtained from 4,128 residents nationwide, aged between 18
and 60.
It forms part of the polling agency's report on the Chinese's evaluation of
the government and its performance.
However, officials from central government do not support the findings.
"Maybe some local governmental agencies are overstaffed, but not at the
central governmental level," said an official with the Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), the country's product quality
watchdog.
Following a programme of redundancies in 1998 when Zhu Rongji was premier,
most areas of central government departments are staffed with about five civil
servants, while some only have two or three.
"They actually have to work overtime to finish their assigned jobs," said the
official, who refused to be named. During the past two years, four AQSIQ
officials have died of heart-related diseases caused by their work levels.
However, experts said governments should pay attention to the survey.
Statistics show that the average ratio of taxpayers to civil servants is
26:1, while the ratio can be 20:1 in some western provinces.
"The ratio is lower than the world's average, but the number of civil
servants in China is too large compared with the country's economic output,"
said Wang Jian, professor with the National School of Administration.
(China Daily 02/10/2006 page2)
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