It has been established that the Serbian public administration has a surplus of around 9,000 employees, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Kori Udovicki said on Monday, adding that they should leave by the end of this year.
“This is the estimate at this moment, but not the exact number. Until the adoption of the law on employees in the autonomous provinces and local self-government units and the government’s decision, we will work on determining the surplus of employees as precisely as possible,” she said.
It is possible that the number would be even higher due to spending cuts, she said.
Udovicki said that the draft law is subject to public debate by June 4, adding that it could be tabled for a debate in the parliament in late June or early July.
The number of public administration workers in Serbia stands at 493,505, including 410,979 employees in executive bodies, while the local self-governments employ 77,368 people, according to the data from December last year, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government said.
Judicial and legislative bodies have a total of 4,360 employees, while independent and regulatory bodies employ 719 people, Udovicki told reporters at the government building, where she presented the downsizing program and an analysis of the public administration in Serbia.
Around 9,000 public administration employees have been identified as redundant, Udovicki specified.
The natural outflow of employees is significantly lower this year compared to the earlier period, and accounts for only one percent of the workforce, she said.
Analysis has shown that there is room for a reduction in the number of public administration employees without compromising the quality of services provided, Udovicki said, adding that the process will be neither quick nor easy.
Serbia does not have a disproportionately large number of employees in the public administration, noted Udovicki.
Cost cutting is not an end in itself, she stressed. Proper use of funds must be ensured, and the main goal should be the optimization and the creation of modern public administration, the minister said.
(RTS, 26.05.2015)
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