Laying off 250 thousand employees,Administrative & financial reforms advised by World Bank [Archives:2003/649/Business & Economy]

The government of Yemen intends to carry out large-scale administrative and financial reforms aimed at restructuring all administrative sectors and units under recommendation and advice of the World Bank. These measures would result in the lay off of around 250 thousand government employees.
The government has circulated directives among all ministries and establishments scheduled to be included in the restructuring program and the formation of a committee whose duty is to study the level of the new policy of employment process. This step is considered to be the first step and a beginning for reducing the number of civil servants of the state institutions whose number is amounted to 445 thousand employees.
Surveys conducted in this respect point out that there are about 35.634 thousand cases of moonlighting and the number of repeated names of employees reach 17.251 names. There are, in addition, many thousands of employees receiving salaries without occupying public jobs.
The process of reform is concentrated on public services ministries, judiciary, police and security apparatuses and taxes and customs authorities. Part of the administrative reform policy is to relieve persons who do not possess specialty qualifications from certain positions and jobs.
As a result of the lay off process it is expected there would be an increase in proportion of unemployment especially under lacking of government plans and failure of policies in providing new jobs for the unemployed opportunities. Some field indicators show cases of tampering with job opportunities in the governorates and that has urged the council of ministers to form a committee to deal with this problem. But here are fears that the said committee would not fully follow the declared criteria set for employment and might slip to surrendering to nepotism. Such a consequence would make lose the tasks assigned for it for effecting justice in distribution of available jobs.
Last year the council of ministers had approved cancellation of 25 thousand unreal government jobs most of them representing cases of occupying more than one jobs by employees receiving wages and salaries from more than one government institution.
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