Officials think of labor shedding but ... recruit new employees

Officials had barely recovered from the HR optimization of 2013 when Lukashenka again set the task to reduce the number of employees. And this time it was not by a quarter but in half.

"We can still cut half of the state machinery,improving the discipline and stripping the state apparatus of uncharacteristic and even harmful functions," ordered Lukashenka. 

We asked the HR department of Minsk Oblast Executive Committee how to reduce the already cut apparatus. 

"We are working on this issue, we have distributed tasks to each department,"  assured us the Deputy Chief of Staff Svyatlana Vlasava and added that she didn't have time to talk since there were two people waiting for a job interview in the Minsk Oblast Executive Committee! 

But what about the shedding? It feels like a deja vu, because during the last campaign there was sometimes reduction in vacancies not officials. 

"There are vacancies in every department," warns the deputy head of the HR department. There are 17 seats available in Minsk Oblast Executive Committee only, and there are still vacancies in districts! 

The press service of the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services told Euroradio they were not in the position to talk about the new cuts. Firstly, these were only words of the head of state. Secondly, there are no papers or orders. Thirdly, there was no way of analyzing Lukashenka's decisions. 

"We'll do as we are told. If they tell us to cut, we'll cut," told us employees of a number of departments. 

In Dzyarzhynsk district executive committee staff unexpectedly agreed with the President. The apparatus should be cut. 

"This can happen throught stripping us of the functions alien to us. For example, we co-ordinate installation of gas equipment. Although in fact there is no person responsible for this. In fact, RAYGAZ may do it, but they turn to us. And the worker is preparing a response. And there are a lot of functions like this," explained staff in the Dzyarzhynsk district executive committee. 

Here they recall the previous "optimization" - about 27% were reduced! About 150 people were employed, and now there is 100! Some went into business, others to the economy sector.

The official noted the unpopularity of working in the civil service. There are no promising young people, no respectful attitude. There is a lack of computer experts able to  freely navigate the Internet in the government. 

"Salary after optimization was raised by 700,000 rubles.  I receive as much money as a school director with wage premiums and years of experience! And then there's a new law on corruption: step left, step right - execution. It's possible to stay without pension, and responsibility is huge! And the young specialist's salary is 3.2 million rubles! I sit on the committee for civil service selection, and I can say that the new staff are not very professional. They might just read the law "On civil service", and that's all. And there is a lack of intelligent professionals. Maybe after this reduction prestige of the service will increase," said deputy chairman of the Dzyarzhynsk executive committee reiterating words of the head of state and hoping to increase the popularity of places in power. 

The press service of the head of state told Euroradio that so far no steps in this direction such as establishment of commission or appointment of officials responsible for the reduction had not been made. 

It should be recalled that during the reduction of the officials based on the presidential decree 162 in 2013, the state apparatus was also deprived of "hazardous and non-core functions." Then the state apparatus was apparently cut by 13,617 units and  functions of state agencies were revised. But time passed and  "non-core features and extra officials appeared again." However, there has been issued no decree on the reduction yet.