Jakarta – Civil servants who are absent for 12 days consecutively without notice must be fired, according to State Minister of Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin.

"If no harsh measures are taken against them, it's not good enough," Feisal said in a meeting with West Nusa Tenggara officials in Mataram on Sunday evening. West Nusa Tenggara Governor Harun Al Rasyid, a number of top provincial officials, councillors and religious leaders attended the meeting.

The minister said at the meeting that heads of state departments and agencies had to reprimand their subordinates, who were often absent without permission.

If civil leaders did not know if their subordinates were absent for 12 days or more consecutively without notice, those leaders had to be dismissed too. The minister also said that governors and regents also had to be monitored, at least once every six months, to find out if they really worked or not.

He did not specify exactly who should monitor governors and regents. Governors and regents are under the supervision of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

"Our country is currently sick. If civil servants, governors and regents work as they like, this country will go to the dogs," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

He said Indonesia currently had around four million civil servants, insufficient to serve some 210 million people. Ideally, Indonesia needed at least five million civil servants, or 2.5 percent of the total population. With such a below-par number of civil servants, he said, they and government officials had to be dedicated to serve the nation.

It was not clear, however, if Feisal's statement would be followed by a directive or even a ministerial decree aimed at improving the performance of civil servants.

Previously, Feisal announced the government's austerity program and the directive for officials to lead more modest lifestyles. The program included limitations on the use of paper and telephones in offices. State officials were also asked not to wear suits.

The program was met with enthusiasm in the beginning, when it was introduced in late December, but not long after that, it was already being ignored by state officials.