J. Macgregor et al., DOWNSIZING THE CIVIL-SERVICE IN DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES - THE GOLDEN HANDSHAKE OPTION REVISITED, Public administration and development, 18(1), 1998, pp. 61-76
In recent years, more and more calls are being heard in a growing numb
er of developing countries to downsize their civil services. It is arg
ued that downsizing is needed because of the increasing shortfalls in
government recurrent and development budgets. This situation results i
n underutilized, underfunded staff and often in the siphoning-off of d
onor funds in the development budget for recurrent expenditure. The ma
in problems addressed in this article are why should and how can the c
ivil service in developing countries be downsized. The questions of ho
w much to trim the bureaucracy and how to redeploy redundant public se
rvants in the private sector are also addressed. The article examines
alternative strategies for significantly downsizing the civil service.
It is contended that problems in this area are indeed common to many
developing countries. Various golden handshake options for civil servi
ce leavers receive particular attention. It is suggested that economic
jumpstart is a better term than golden handshake to characterize the
incentives package offered to induce staff to accept voluntary redunda
ncy. Civil service reform is not presented here as a panacea for all d
eveloping countries' ills. The article makes a number of mostly untrie
d but nevertheless attractive suggestions that bring some fresh thinki
ng to bear on a difficult issue. Paths and avenues worth exploring whe
n starting to design civil service trimming operations are presented,
including some of their limitations. The point is finally made that th
is type of downsizing is overdue in many places. The article should be
considered as a contribution to demystifying the process of downsizin
g the civil service in developing countries. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Son
s, Ltd.