Bandung – Before the law on regional autonomy is implemented in January next year, more than 2.6 of the 4.2 million central government employees will be transferred to provincial administrations, a minister said on Monday.

"It's not really difficult because we will only need to change their status from central government employees to provincial administration employees," State Minister of Administrative Reform Ryaas Rasyid said here. He said most of the civil servants to be transferred were former employees of ministries which had been dissolved or merged.

The government under President Abdurrahman Wahid has dissolved two ministries – the ministry of information and the ministry of social affairs. It also merged the office of the state minister of regional autonomy and the ministry of home affairs; and the office of the state minister of human rights affairs and the ministry of justice.

Ryaas said a draft on the transfer had been submitted to the President for approval, but it had not yet been signed because of political considerations. "The President is very cautious about the impact of the transfer since itinvolves a large number of people. He is considering the political impact of the relocation. "I just give technical advice. If he [the President] wants, the decree could be signed this month," he said.

He said that although the total number of civil servants was only 2 percent of the country's total population of more than 200 million, the civil service needed to be restructured through the transfers. He said the transfer would involve civil servants of various ranks and positions, including the government's top echelon of officials.

As many as 250 top-echelon officials, 500 second-echelon officials and more than 2,000 officials who hold structural positions will be transferred, he said.

"If they refuse to be transferred they can stay in Jakarta without any structural positions," Ryaas said. He said the planned transfer had been discussed with various parties and had, so far, received no objections or complaints.

Besides the transfers to provincial administrations, the civil servants also will be moved to state enterprises and even to police headquarters as administrative staffers, he said. "The police force is planning to redeploy officers currently assigned to administrative duties to become professional police officers. So they need new employees to replace them," he said.