Labor Watch / J.T. - The government's decision to restructure the public sector was made with full understanding of the challenges that would surface, but will save the state millions in the long term, Minister of Public Sector Development Khleif Al Khawaldeh said Tuesday.

At a press conference yesterday, Khawaldeh said the plan, which started with restructuring the salaries of public sector employees by adopting a unified civil service system, will soon change how the government does business in other fields.

"Currently, government technical committees are revisiting the mechanism of floating tenders, the financial and supply systems, and the salaries of employees in state-owned institutions. Our main objective is to achieve justice in everything owned and operated by the state," the minister said, adding that the ultimate goal of the restructuring plan is to ensure a better future for the next generation by setting a solid ground for the management of human resources.

"No sooner had the plan been announced than we started to see some opposition who claimed to be reformists, while in fact they were only defending their own interests," the minister said, reiterating that the plan, which went into effect January 1, will save the country millions.

Khawaldeh said that the plan managed to unify more than 47 different civil service employment policies into one system, which he said would ensure justice to all job applicants seeking appointment in the public sector. It also removed many of the privileges that used to be offered to some employees, such as generous end-of-service benefits that, if maintained, would dry up the financial resources of many independent public sector institutions.

"It is not acceptable that in some cases employees received more than JD100,000 as an end-of-service bonus. The plan also set a maximum salary limit of JD3,000, whereas it was in some cases more than JD8,000 a month," the minister said, adding that the government took into consideration the social ramifications of the plan before putting it into action and that the new salary caps apply only to those who are appointed after its adoption.

According to the minister, the salary restructuring plan will save more than JD9 million annually, while other elements of the public sector overhaul, to be implemented soon, will save even more.

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