Government: 'Public Institution Consolidation Not Aimed at Cost Cutting, New Hires Will Not Decrease'

The government, which announced a high-intensity public institution restructuring plan to downsize 109 public institutions, accounting for 20% of all such entities, stated that "the goal of this policy direction is not on cost reduction."

Regarding the public institution function reform promotion plan announced yesterday (the 3rd), an official from the Ministry of Economy and Finance stated, "This is an approach on a completely different level from previous public institution reforms."

In response to the slogan "The party is over" used during the public institution reforms under the Park Geun-hye and Yoon Suk Yeol administrations, the official emphasized, "At that time, the aim was to improve inefficiency and lax management in public institutions. This time, the dimension is about carrying out convergent and preemptive reforms to respond to the great AI transformation and lingering complex crises."

The official added regarding concerns that hiring would shrink due to consolidations, "While existing overlapping personnel will be redeployed, new recruitment will not decrease."

The employees of the 109 institutions targeted by this reorganization scale at approximately 120,000.

Regarding the compensation system before and after consolidation, the official stated, "Applying differential increase rates is the most appropriate way to narrow the gap between institutions with high and low compensation." They added, "Since levels vary across institutions and job series, we will form a dedicated task force and consult with relevant ministries."

To the question of whether this measure has the relocation of public institutions to regional areas in mind, the official replied, "The integration was not pursued with relocation as a prerequisite," adding, "For institutions where integration is decided, future relocation will be determined separately."

Regarding the timeline for pushing function consolidations, the official added, "More than 80% of the 109 institutions require revisions to related laws," noting that "the practical role of the National Assembly is important."

(File Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.