By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
President-elect Lee Myung-bak Friday called on his transition team to work out concrete retraining programs for 6,900 surplus civil servants, who would be stripped of their positions under a planned downsizing of bureaucracy.
In a meeting with his deputies in Seoul, Lee said the organizational downsizing entails manpower reduction. But he emphasized that the surplus manpower will be reassigned in the government as long as they successfully complete retraining, indicating that the unsuccessful civil servants in training will be forced to leave officialdom.
He added that the success of the government reorganization would be dependent, to a large extent, on harmonious fusion of civil servants from different ministries. The transition committee will map out plans to introduce measures that would minimize hegemony battles during the reorganization.
Lee, however, faces an uphill battle for the endorsement of his government downsizing plan.
United New Democratic Party (UNDP) Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu opposed the proposed merger of the Ministry of Unification into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, among others.
The Grand National Party (GNP) plans to submit a bill to the Assembly next week on government downsizing for approval. The GNP has 130 seats in the 299-member legislature, while the UNDP has 138 seats.
Sohn said that a government ministry responsible for overseeing the overall affairs of inter-Korean economic cooperation is still needed in the next government as South and North Korea have seen increased contact and cooperation.
``Non-economic factors such as the wishes of the people should also be considered as a core goal of the reorganization plan, along with efficiency,'' Sohn said.
``The Unification Ministry should remain even after the downsizing,'' he said.
The UNDP leader said he also believes in the need for small government, but this does not mean that efficiency should be stressed at the expense of the wishes of the people.
Political observers predicted that the transition team might use the Unification Ministry card as a bargaining chip in the parliamentary approval process.
The transition team, however, dismissed the speculation, saying that the merger of the two ministries is not a matter of negotiation.
President-elect Lee also denied that his team downplayed Seoul-Pyongyang relations in its government reorganization plan.
Lee told foreign correspondents Thursday that all government ministries need to work closely with Pyongyang in all areas once the North dismantles its nuclear programs.
``It is not feasible for one government ministry to deal with the increased roles and functions in inter-Korean relations in the post-denuclearization era,'' Lee said.
Lee demanded the presidential team members be time-wise and money-smart when they work on follow-up measures of the plan.
He requested the team to complete a specific and detailed roadmap on deregulation and turn in a paper containing concrete and convincing elements to him.