In the past six years, 22,000 civil servants have resigned and 17,000 have been sacked, as a result of efficiency drives targeting a more flexible civil service system.
Civil service workers are free to resign if they wish and those under performing risked dismissal, an official with the Ministry of Personnel said.
In the planned economy of the past, civil servants were not allowed to leave their work units even if they wanted to, and those admitted to the civil service sector were guaranteed a lifetime post and pension. The system was nicknamed "the iron rice bowl" meaning job security without any risk of being unemployed.
The changes have brought about a situation that most people previously were reluctant to face. In 1993 the state passed the Regulations on Civil Servants, allowing free resignations and justifiable dismissals.
The new system favors efficient workers and penalizes under performers. This helped improve the quality of civil servants as a whole, and established uncorrupted, efficient officials, the official said.
(People's Daily October 11, 2002)
