Gyeongnam Provincial Officials Increase by 30% in 4 Years... "To Be Reviewed and Improved Under Governor Park Wansu's Administration"

Second among 17 National Metropolitan Governments, More Than Twice That of Busan and Incheon

On the 7th, Jeong Si-sik, the head of the transition team, speaking at the announcement of Park Wan-su's transition team for the Governor of Gyeongnam Province. / Photo by Lee Se-ryeong ryeong@

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] From the start, the transition team clearly stated on the 19th that the number of general public officials in Gyeongnam Province increased by 30% over four years.

The transition team reported, “According to the data on the number of public officials in 17 cities and provinces nationwide, the number of general public officials in Gyeongnam Province, which was 1,772 as of the end of June 2017, increased by a total of 541 to 2,313 as of the end of December 2021.”

“Although the population size is similar, the increase rate was more than twice as high as Busan and Incheon, which are in the low 10% range, showing a 30.5% increase,” and explained, “This far exceeded the national average of 14.8% and was the second highest increase among the 17 cities and provinces nationwide.”

Jung Sishik, head of the transition team, said, “Since the number of general public officials has increased rapidly, we will carefully review once again whether the new personnel have been appropriately assigned and whether the quota management has been properly conducted.”

The transition team also emphasized the need to establish reasonable institutional guidelines for fixed-term public officials who are not included in the official quota.

According to the team, the number of fixed-term public officials at the provincial office steadily increased from 74 in 2017 to 88 in 2018, 118 in 2019, 130 in 2020, and 132 in 2021.

Head Jung said, “If fixed-term public officials are hired without specific and objective criteria and verification of performance, internal conflicts within the organization are inevitable,” and added, “Improvement measures must be prepared under more transparent principles and standards.”

Considering that as of last year, one public official in Gyeongnam Province is responsible for more residents than in other cities and provinces, the team expressed the view that arbitrarily freezing or reducing the number of public officials is not desirable.

The transition team stated that as of the end of December 2021, the population per public official in Gyeongnam Province was 481, which was the third highest among the 17 cities and provinces after Gyeonggi with 870 and Seoul with 500.

“In this severe situation where the debt burden to be borne by future generations is increasing and warning signals are flashing for the household economy of ordinary citizens,” the team emphasized, “the organization must be managed in a way that reduces the burden on residents and increases policy efficiency.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.