Suwon City Needs to Reorganize Again

Suwon City has failed to properly read the new government's organizational restructuring policy and has implemented a large-scale reorganization, raising concerns about confusion in public administration and wasteful spending of taxpayer money.

In particular, despite criticism of unilateral expansion of bureaucracy<Suwon Ilbo, March 25 edition, page 2>, the city invited further criticism by carrying out 'organizational fragmentation' that goes against the new government's reorganization policy and expanding workforce.

According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the government finalized and recommended a 'local government reorganization plan' to local governments that aims to reduce general-category local civil servants by 10,000 nationwide this year and cut the total payroll budget of local governments by up to 10%. The ministry also mandated that local governments reduce contract workers proportionally to the reduction rate of general-category civil servants and self-regulate temporary and part-time workers.

The reorganization plan encourages local governments to reduce their total payroll budget by up to 10%, providing grants equivalent to 10% of the savings when achieving the basic target of 5% reduction, and 50% of the savings amount when exceeding the target.

The plan also recommends that local governments adopt the central government's 'large bureau-large department system,' with one bureau comprising 3-4 departments and one department consisting of 20-30 or more personnel, while promoting the consolidation of small-scale neighborhoods with populations under 20,000 and areas under 3㎢.

Accordingly, Suwon City must reorganize the fragmented departments it created during the reorganization following the April 9 general election, and is expected to reduce workforce by a minimum of 70 to a maximum of 100 personnel.

The reorganization plan implemented on the 10th of last month added one new bureau with two departments and three teams, increasing staff by 17 personnel. As a result, the total increased from 2,520 to 2,537 personnel. While this falls short of the authorized positions (2,574) based on the 2007 budget scale and administrative demand, it exceeds the 5% reduction target from the Ministry of Interior and Safety (estimated at 128 positions). As business departments have been increased, there are numerous departments with fewer than 20 personnel per department.

Particularly troubling for Suwon City, which is planning to allocate expanded workforce to the Suwon Hwaseong Museum and History Museum scheduled to open in July and March of next year respectively, will be the adjustment required. Moreover, in accordance with government guidelines recommending consolidation of similar departments, discussion regarding the merger of similar cultural and tourism-related departments and agencies, including the Hwaseong Projects Office (including the Hwaseong Cultural Foundation) and Tourism and Culture Division, and the Museum Projects Office, which have been criticized for duplicative functions and parallel administrative systems, appears inevitable.

However, despite the government's reorganization plan for a 'smaller and more efficient government' having been announced before personnel changes were implemented, the city has invited criticism by presenting plans for small-scale business departments and workforce expansion that go against the government's announced reorganization policy.

A civic organization official stated, "The city failed to recognize the foreseeable situation, raising concerns about wasteful administration and losses from the new reorganization plan," adding "The city will not gain public trust if it continues administration that cannot see one step ahead."

Meanwhile, some argue that the central government may infringe on local governments' autonomous authority, and there are also concerns about fairness issues due to different workforce reduction rates between the government (2.6%) and local governments (5%).

A city official stated, "Since we must submit the reorganization plan by June, we must establish plans for workforce reduction and organizational restructuring," adding "To meet the government's target of 5% of total payroll budget reduction, we anticipate workforce reduction of at least 70 personnel."

In particular, the official added, "In the April 10 reorganization, we set up business functions in detail, and converting to a large bureau system will be an even more challenging task."