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State agencies set to add manpower despite mergers

Posted November. 19, 2014 06:57,   

한국어

The Public Safety and Security Ministry, the Personnel Affairs Innovation Ministry and the Public Administration Ministry will officially be launched on Wednesday. The move comes six months after President Park Geun-hye announced in her May 19 public statement a reshuffle of government organization that calls for the establishment of "disaster control tower" as a follow-up measure for the Sewol disaster. However, critics say that the bureaucratic community is expanding its size and embracing a flurry of promotions by exploiting the crisis as an opportunity through the reshuffle, expanding by more than 1,000 civil servant posts.

The Public Safety and Security Ministry, which takes over the Korea Coast Guard and the National Emergency Management Agency, has been reborn as a mega organization with 10,375 employees (19 bureaus and 62 divisions). The ministry will also merge the Central Fire Prevention Headquarters, and the Maritime Guard and Safety Headquarters, and be comprised of the safety policy office and the disaster management office, each of which takes over the functions of safety management and disaster prevention, as well as the special disaster office for special disasters in the fields of aviation, energy, chemicals, gas, and communications.

The Public Safety and Security Ministry will have additional 673 employees, on top of 9,372 who will be moving from the Security and Public Administration Ministry, the Korea Coast Guard, and the National Emergency Management Agency. The ministry will thus become the largest organization in staff size in the central government only after the National Police Agency, the Science, ICT and Future Planning Ministry, the Justice Ministry, and the National Tax Service.

The Personnel Affairs Innovation Ministry, which will take over the functions of civil servants’ personnel affairs and pension, will have additional 52 staff, on top of 431 who will move from the Security and Public Administration Ministry. The Education Ministry will have additional 10 in the social policy cooperation office to assist the Deputy Prime Minister for Education, Society and Culture, while the Strategy and Finance Ministry will have extra five officials n charge of public safety budget. The reshuffle in effect adds 740 civil servants instantly to the central government organization.

After the year 2015, when special rescue squads will be established for regions including Chungcheong, Gangwon and Jeolla provinces, the government will have additional 330. As a result, the reshuffle of government organization will increase a combined total of 1,070 government employees.

Thirteen new posts will also be added to the group of high-level civil servants, which will likely result in a flurry of promotions. As the Public Safety Minister is a minister-level official, servant posts for political affairs have increased from 123 to 124. The Public Safety and Security Ministry will have as many as three vice minister-level officials. Its cross-cutting departments including planning, public information, and emergency countermeasure planning, which were the division level in the conventional administration office, will be elevated to director-general level units.

Seo Yeong-bok, chairman of the policy consultation committee under the Citizens’ Coalition for Public Administration Reform, said, “If the government is to avoid criticism that the reshuffle has only increased the number of civil servants, it should make its organization slimmer and boost field capacities to be able to deal with situations on the scene even after its inauguration.” Professor Lee Chang-won at Hansung University said, “If the Public Safety and Security Ministry is to generate synergistic effect from integration, it should change its organizational structure to the one focused more on the field as soon as possible.”