Retirement regulations need strict enforcement

Strict enforcement of retirement regulations is necessary to prevent the current problem of officials continuing to work beyond their retirement age, a senior government official said recent. 

Lax enforcement of the law was behind Laos’ glut of state employees in comparison to other countries in the region, the official said, adding that this also increased the financial burden on the government. 

Vixay Phandanouvong, director general of Home Affairs Ministry’s Public Servant Management Depart-ment, said the ministry was gathering information to find out how many officials have reached the retirement age of 60 for men and 55 for women and are still working. He said the number of state employees retiring was low compared to the number of new recruits. 

Statistics show that 12,550 officials were employed during the 2012-2013 fiscal year, compared to 1,866 officials who either retired or were dismissed. 

In the 2011-2012 fiscal year, 15,340 were recruited and only 1,627 left office. At present, the Lao government employs 2.36 public servants for every 100 people. In most countries the average is less than two public servants per 100 people. 

Vixay said it was necessary to cut down on the number of public servants because state spending on salaries and allowances was alarming close to 40 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product. 

He said such high spending on allowances and salaries could hinder the country’s development. 

There are many reasons for this employee glut, the key one being that the government has established four new ministries and their provincial and district bodies with personnel being recruited to run the new sectors. The other leading cause is officials not retiring. Vixay said older people often believe that upon retirement, they will be of no value to society, so they prefer to hang on to their jobs and organisations are not strict with the enforcement of regulations. 

In a recent annual meeting of the Home Affairs Ministry, Vixay suggested that incentives should be introduced, like a fund to organise activities for retired officials. 

He said that prolonging the employment of officials past their retirement age should only be done when it is absolutely necessary. 

The director also said the government should refrain from establishing any unnecessary subordinate bodies under ministries or provincial departments. He went on to say that the number of public servants could be reduced and streamlined through the integration of modern technology.