Minister of Planning and Administrative Reform Ashraf al-Araby said the new civil service law forbids government employees to talk politics at work.
“But it promotes them every three years and not every eight years as before,” he said. “Government employees are neutral but they may join political parties as long as they are not illegal.”
The minister also said that the law contributes to the eradication of corruption and bureaucracy in the administrative apparatus of the state and facilitates the services provided to citizens.
He said that despite the fact that the performance of the administrative apparatus is poor, 99 percent of the employees rank “excellent” in their performance reports. “This is because their variable remuneration, which represents about 80 percent of their total income, is linked to those reports,” he explained, adding that the new law terminates the services of an employee who gets a ranking less than average twice, but it keeps his pension.
“The law reduces the nine articles relating to punishments to five,” he said. “In case of a poor performance by managers, they are notified, their salaries are cut and they are dismissed if they do not improve.”
According to the law, a ministry can appoint a director of a department for three years and an undersecretary for four years so that the work is not affected if the minister is changed. It also gives employees with special needs an additional 15 days to their annual leave and gives women a four-month maternity leave instead of three.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
