Dechen Dolkar
In a major step, the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) is all set to provide autonomy of human resource recruitment to local governments in a bid to tackle on-going issues of staff shortage in local government administrations.
This move will empower local government authorities, enabling them to manage staffing needs more effectively and tackle pressing challenges of service delivery due to staff constraints.
During the coordination workshop on the 13th Plan with Local Government (LG) leaders in Thimphu yesterday, the RCSC announced that recruitment for Supervisory and Support Category (SSC) and Operational Category (OC) has been delegated to the agencies. This change means that the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs can now recruit gewog administration officers without routing through the RCSC.
The RCSC has completed the review of the Elementary Service Personnel (ESP) and General Service Personnel (GSP) staffing standards for dzongkhags and will review LG staff requirements for the 13th Plan.
The Commission also plans to implement service clustering for engineering, legal, ICT, and finance sectors to bridge existing gaps.
The Chairperson of the RCSC, Tashi Pem, assured LG leaders that the Commission will provide sufficient human resources.
The Commission has approved 2,774 positions for LGs across all dzongkhags. However, currently, only 2,299 positions are filled, leaving a shortfall of 475.
According to RCSC records, the attrition rate in LGs has increased since 2021. The total number of human resources in LGs stood at 18,925 in 2021, which dropped to 15,522 last year, recording an attrition rate of 16 percent, the highest so far in the civil service.
The RCSC aims to improve the civil servants-to-population ratio from 1:27 to 1:29 in the 13th Plan.
Director of RCSC Sonam Pelden Thaye said that the Commission has also provided autonomy to LGs on the transfer of contract staff, including ESP and GSP, transfer of staff within three years from initial posting if transferred within the same locality of the dzongkhag or agency and transfers involving a change in position title within the superstructure.
The Director said that LGs can now approve meritorious promotions for six months and manage training gaps.
During the workshop, gups expressed concerns over the absence of essential human resources such as gewog administration officers, engineers, and livestock and agriculture officers, leading to inefficiencies and delays in service delivery. They emphasised the need for permanent human resources in these fields for each gewog, rather than shared resources among multiple gewogs.
RCSC Commissioner Lobzang Dorji said that the Commission is considering amending the current policy to provide more than one livestock and agriculture officer for those dzongkhags and gewogs involved in intensive farming activities.
As part of its way forward, the RCSC plans to implement a clutch of initiatives, focused on building leadership, a competent workforce and enabling workplace, and nurturing talent.