Jakarta – About 60 per cent of Indonesia's four million civil servants are unqualified for their jobs, according to the State Administrative Reforms Minister.

Mr Feisal Tamin said on Wednesday that studies by his office and other parties showed that only 40 per cent of Indonesia's civil servant force were qualified, the state Antara news agency reported.

However, the government could not dismiss those who lacked the necessary education or training because of regulations and obligations. Also, dismissal entailed early retirement or severance payoffs, the minister added.

"For the time being, all that my office can do is to motivate them to be aware of this condition and make them want to work well," he said. "Raising their performance standards is certainly a heavy task resting on the shoulders of my office."

The raising of the proportion of qualified staff from 40 per cent to 60 per cent would be a major accomplishment, he said, calling on the public to help enforce discipline and productivity among civil servants. "All elements of the community are called on to be active in reporting any kind of abuses allegedly committed by state apparatuses," he said.

In July, Mr Feisal had said his office was considering offering early pensions to almost 60 per cent of the civil servants to cut costs. "If there is no hope for the employees or they continue being yelled at, it is better for them to ask for an early pension," he remarked.

Complaints about the civil servants' lack of professionalism came to the fore last year when a national survey rated them as the worst in the world. And earlier this year, President Megawati Sukarnoputri even said that bureaucrats in Indonesia were like garbage.