Yogyakarta – Nearly 95 percent of the 4.7 million civil servants in Indonesia are incompetent, Administrative Reforms Minister Azwar Abubakar says.

Given their lack of competency, Azwar said, most civil servants had no initiative to carry out their tasks. "Mostly, they only follow orders. They don't have initiative," the minister added.

Azwar said that there were problems in recruiting quality employees despite there being 100,000 civil service vacancies a year against 3 million people entering the workforce.

"In the future, we have to only recruit civil servants who are competent and have competitive advantages."

The minister added that the government would implement a moratorium on new civil service hires. "We will only recruit civil servants based on our needs," he said as quoted by Antara.