Budget worries stall gov’t job promotions
GENERAL Department of Immigration director-general Kirth Chantharith issued a moratorium on Monday to halt in-house officer promotions to the rank of deputy chief.
The directive, sent to directors, applies to immigration posts, offices and departments. He said the measure is to improve work effectiveness and efficiency and hold down State budget expenses.
Similar reforms are being carried out by all departments under the Ministry of Interior.
Chantharith said on Monday he noticed many immigration police officers holding the titles of deputy border post officer, deputy office chief and deputy director of the immigration department.
“To stop promoting these unnecessary positions in the structure of the department and office, which does not correspond to the workload, and to ensure the effectiveness of management within the department, the General Department of Immigration requests all departments to postpone submitting promotion requests for deputy border post chief, deputy office chief, and deputy department chief,” he said.
He said the promotion and transfer of immigration police within the department must wait for position evaluations and approval from Minister of Interior Sar Kheng.
Chantharith led a meeting on Tuesday to evaluate the positions and number of officials within his general department. He said the evaluation was made to enforce reform that the Ministry of Interior had committed to. The evaluation was to gauge the real situation and proper workforce needs.
“The reform serves to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the State budget. Police officers at all immigration departments, offices and posts, must try to work hard, be disciplined, unified and work closely with each other,” he said.
Ministry of Interior spokesman Phat Sophanith said similar reforms are happening at other general departments of the ministry.
“All general departments under the Ministry of Interior are carrying out reforms in line with the government’s strategy,” Sophanith said.
Advocacy and Policy Institute (API) director Lam Socheat welcomed the decision of the General Department of Immigration. He said all government ministries and institutions should postpone promoting or recruiting nonvital officials. He said the State budget should be used for Covid-19 impacts.
“In this era when the country’s economy feels the impact of Covid-19 and State income is low, expenses should be restricted.
“In this difficult time, I think the government should reconsider promotions and recruitment. The current officials should work hard and their work should be effective and productive,” Socheat said.