Jakarta – State Minister for Administrative Reforms Taufik Effendi said Saturday that the number of civil servants would be reduced by at least one million in order to improve efficiency.

Taufik, speaking in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, said that the present 3.6 million servants were too many and inefficient and needed to be reduced in stages to reach an ideal number. He said the reduction had already begun and that the number of new recruits employed to replace retirees had been reduced.

Government statistics show that 125,000 civil servants retire every year. Over the last few years, Taufik said, only around 20,000 to 25,000 new government employees have been hired each year. "The problem is that about 65 percent of the civil servants do clerical jobs and they are not functional," Taufik was quoted by Antara as saying.

He added that a large number of civil servants had been placed in positions for which they were not academically qualified. Nor are they proportionally distributed, he said. In Bali, Jembrana regency has 4,600 civil servants, but neighboring Tabanan has 15,000. In Kalimantan, Kutai Kartanegara has 18,000 civil servants, Taufik said.

Disparities also occur in the ministries. The Finance Ministry has 72,000 employees, the Home Ministry 125,000 and the Education Ministry 103,000.

"The too many government employees makes the state administration ineffective. The state could collapse if it has to continue paying a great number of employees at a time of economic hardship," he said.

In the future, he said, positions in the government will be filled by employees with relevant expertise and the number of clerical jobs will be slashed.

Taufik predicted that by the year 2014, five million civil servants will have retired and the government will have to pay Rp 40 trillion in pensions.

He also said that in the future, the government would have to set aside a huge amount of money to pay civil servants as of 2007 because the minimum monthly salary will be raised from Rp 600,000 to Rp 1,6000.

Civil servants will also have to improve their work ethic, he said, as government employees were "notorious for their poor service". "For example, they should know that if they keep making it difficult for people to start businesses, Indonesia will remain poor because many people will not be able to find employment," he said.