While the Royal Civil Service Commission is working towards building a strong civil service, keeping it small, compact, and efficient continues to be a challenge. As per the commission’s Annual Report 2020 – 2021, this time, the increase in the number of civil servants is due to the increased demand in the education and health sectors.
In the last three years, about 2800 new civil servants were recruited in the education and health sectors. On the other hand, the rest of the civil service agencies together received only 250 to 300 officers.
As per the annual report, policy decisions in the education system have led to the growth in human resources. It states that, ‘the RCSC has very little say as the decisions are taken directly by the government, sometimes in consultation with the ministry and sometimes unilaterally without due process.’
Similarly, the report states that the demand for human resources in the health sector continues to grow with health infrastructure expanding. In recent years, many new hospitals were established and basic health units upgraded.
However, the commission has been seeing a positive development in other sectors and agencies. As per the report, the demand for staff is stabilising and even decreasing in some agencies. This is partly due to the efficiency of ICT systems in reducing workloads. Besides, multi-tasking of staff and doing away with redundant posts contributed in reducing the number of staff.
As of June this year, there are more than 31,000 civil servants in the country.
Sangay Chezom
Edited by Sonam Wangdi
