At 4︰30 in the morning, a deserted Chung shan market is still shrouded in darkness. Hsu Hao-jan and his colleagues from Taipei City Government's Department of Reconstruction emerge from their office and start up their motorbikes. The chilly ride home to Peitou makes him shiver in his leather jacket. Come summertime, he wonders, will I be seeing the sun come up by now?
Civil servants are generally thought to have a fixed 9 to 5 working day, but nowadays many of them are turning into night owls.
--For the past three months everyone on the Economic Construction Committee charged with mapping out the "Six Year National Development Plan," from the director Shirley Kuo down to minor departmental officials, have not only put in overtime each evening but have even braved typhoon weather to report in at their posts to ensure the plan comes out on schedule at the end of December.
--With Finance Minister Wang Chienhsuan setting the pace, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has turned into a virtual "7-Eleven" as officials start off with breakfast meetings at 7 a.m. and don't turn off the lights and go home until 10 or 11 at night.
--Since November 18, with Premier Hau Pei-tsun's law and order drive, civil servants from construction, education, public health and information departments in county and city governments have regularly left their desks to carry out night-time inspection duties.
What with an endemic manpower shortage and women--one third of the workforce--not readily available for night duty, "practically every male in the office under 60 is being mobilized, section heads included," chuckles Shih Jui-ch'eng of Taipei City Government's Department of Reconstruction.
His department mobilizes 18 inspectors and 15 police each night on patrols of the eight main businesses most closely affecting law and order between midnight and 4 a.m. Back at the office there are statistical reports to fill in, so they usually go home around 5︰30.
The civil service used to be regarded as a career which offered lifelong security if nothing else; women liked to marry civil servants for the prospect of a regular family life. How come such hopes have now come to nought?
"Change is being forced on the civil service by wider changes in society," says Lin K'och'ang of the Executive Yuan's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission.
China's system of appointing bureaucrats through national examinations is a venerable tradition that goes back well over 1,000 years to the Sui and T'ang dynasties. Recently, however, the lifting of martial law and Premier Hau's efficiency drive have ushered in a host of changes.
Today's civil servants even dress differently; they used to stand out in the street with their closed-collar uniform or casual dress, but now central government civil servants dress every bit as smartly as city executives in their summer wear of trousers, shirt and tie or the western suit and leather shoes they wear in winter.
Government offices are changing too. Old premises are being replaced with new office blocks, and many departments are being transferred to rented office space in modern glass-walled buildings, cheek by jowl with private businesses.
Their changing role and shift in attitudes are producing different reactions among many civil servants.
"With public opinion coming into its own since the lifting of martial law, the role of civil servants has just had to undergo adjustment." Professor Hsu Pin-sung, head of Chengchi University's Department of Public Administration, observes that modern civil servants are having to go over from a "mandarin" role to one of "serving the people." Meanwhile high-profile elected representatives and opinion-formers often give civil servants a pretty rough ride in this transitional period.
Take the Taipei City Council for example, where interpellation has evolved to the stage where councilors want the Water Department director to drink a glass of tap water, the Education Department director to recite a passage of English, Fire Department personnel to attend the council chamber in full gear, and teachers to demonstrate their classroom techniques. . . . ; and where councilors often bawl abuse at departmental administrators like so many fish wives.
"Today's civil servants can no longer afford to be desk-bound." Long-time civil servant Chin Te-p'u, director of the General Affairs Department at the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), observes that there are legislators to be dealt with on the phone, reporters dropping in at the office, and an endless stream of central government enquiries and petitions, complaints and even law suits from members of the public to see to. . . . "To be a competent civil servant, personal aplomb is as important as the ability to handle your work."
Personal aplomb is a matter of time, but at least in terms of quality today's civil servants are well equipped to handle their brief.
There used to be a popular joke about the quality of civil servants -- all the ROC's first rate people went into business, the second-rate people went into academic life, and the third rate people joined government agencies to work as civil servants.
This view used to have the tacit consent of the first two parties named, but today's civil servants are calling foul.
"The corridors of the CEPD and MOF are teeming with American university Masters graduates," says Chin Te-p'u of two ministries where he has served. Of the 31 staff in the International Service Department at the Government Information Office (GIO), no less than 45 percent have studied abroad, and as of June 1990 no less than 70 percent of Taiwan's 536,000 civil servants had had a university or college education. This compares with a figure of 17 percent for Taiwan's workforce as a whole.
"Of course we are improving year by year," smiles Hsu Yu-pu, deputy director general of the Central Personnel Administration (CPA). In 1967 when the CPA was first set up, no more than 30 percent of civil servants had university or college degrees, while even in 1975 when the Ten Major Projects were instituted the number only reached 45 percent.
"The Ten Major Projects were set in motion and carried out by civil servants. They were up to it then, so with today's quality of manpower we should have no trouble with the six-year economic plan," Hsu argues.
Having previously served on the Executive Yuan's Economic Security Commission in 1953 and now back in the civil service as a departmental director in the Ministry of Examination, Wang Tso-jung sums up the biggest difference between government agencies then and now: "Today the level of civil service personnel is far better. It's not like the old days when inter-departmental communication always felt like beating your head against a brick wall."
Enhanced personnel quality has had a lot to do with the civil service selection and training system and its recent influx of new blood.
As Taiwan's development has ushered in new educational standards greater specialization has occurred in all walks of life, and "unless civil servants continue to specialize more they won't be able to meet public expectations," warns Hsu Pin-sung.
Coping with varied and unpredictable challenges requires more than going by the rule book; civil servants must be able to compete with the public in terms of specialist knowledge in their field. In recent years more specialized selection examinations have been introduced to make for a more professional civil service. This is most evident in central government. In the Ministry of Interior's Copyright Commission, for instance, director general Wang Ch'uan-lu has drawn up clear conditions aimed at raising the probability of hiring the right staff: First, they must be qualified as civil servants, i.e have passed the requisite examinations; second, they must have graduated from faculties of law, art or music.
"All my staff, from students hired part time to regular civil servants, are graduates in one of these three subjects," Wang states decisively. He adds that 76 percent are actually graduates in law.
To obtain the right staff Wang Ch'uan-lu even advertised publicly and wrote to the Examination Yuan asking them to hold the first ever special examination for administrators in the arts. In due course public art museums got wind of Wang's pool of talent and "pinched" his staff, so another exam had to be held the following year.
According to CPA figures, since 1979 over 1,000 civil servants have been sent abroad to study for advanced degrees or to undertake specialized research, including departmental heads sent abroad for study and observation. All such research was connected with each individual's field of work. If local training is taken into account, each one of Taiwan's 536,000 civil servants has an opportunity to go on a training course about once every three years.
"This still isn't ideal, Premier Hau wants a National Policy Research Institute to be set up as soon as possible to improve training for high-flying civil servants," observes Wu San-ling, a head of department at the CPA. The workshop for external affairs personnel and the workshop on crisis management held in the past two years point the way for the future.
"Courses for civil servants held by Chengchi University's public administration & business management center have been vastly oversubscribed, which shows how strongly motivated civil servants are to improve their performance these days," Hsu Pin-sung notes. "It used to be businessmen and industrialists who strove to better themselves, but today civil servants are also paying attention to self-development."
In addition to higher educational standards and greater professionalism, Taiwan's modern civil service has also made a big break with the past in terms of a younger decision-making echelon.
According to the CPA the average age of civil servants has held steady at around 39 or 40 for the past 15 years. But the average age of section chiefs and departmental heads has fallen sharply, to about 40 as well.
"In the past five years almost all the staff from the Japanese colonial period or the early post-1949 period have retired, giving rise to an influx of new blood," Wang Ch'uan-lu reveals. Many middle level management vacancies have been filled by younger people with excellent qualifications and new ideas.
Along with changes in age, educational qualifications and experience, so civil servants' "market value" has also been transformed.
Time was when employment markets of the civil service and private industry ran parallel, the one never impinging upon the other. But a couple of years ago such was private sector demand for experienced and well qualified personnel in the securities, banking and broadcasting industries that suitable civil servants became avidly sought after, while relatively low pay and an inflexible advancement system also contributed to the civil service brain drain.
This year's economic recession has brought a shrinkage in the private sector jobs market, and the civil service's security of tenure now seems a big plus. There has been a big increase in applicants for the civil service entrance examinations, and some people are exploring the possibility of returning to their former posts. This is certainly on the cards, with the Inspectorate General of Customs welcoming back to the fold anyone absent less than five years.
"Civil servants used to work their life long for their retirement pay, and no one would think of quitting after only five years; but now people tend to keep their options open for ten years or more," Lin K'o-ch'ang explains.
This change in values has caused a huge rise in staff turnover. Lin K'o-ch'ang reveals that one-third of the staff in his office left last year, some for private industry, but most to study overseas.
"Fewer see it as a lifetime career. In future people may switch in and out of civil service jobs several times," notes Lin.
Resignations are mostly a problem among middle-ranking civil servants of 40 or so. This is because once you reach grade 9 you must wait seven or eight years before promotion to a rank equivalent to Lieutenant General in the armed forces. This is a long wait at a time when civil servants are at the peak of their abilities and with plenty of experience, just the sort of qualities most needed in the private sector. So a kind of fault line has arisen within the service structure in recent years.
Of course civil servants don't actually regard their jobs as "iron rice bowls," but nowadays their tenure is less secure than it once was.
As part of an efficiency drive Premier Hau Pei-tsun recently instructed the CPA to study ways of trimming manning levels by 5 percent, or nearly 26,500 people. This initiative has come as a bombshell to the once secure ranks of the civil service.
In fact assessment regulations state that those receiving a "D" grading or two major demerits in any year should be liable to dismissal. "The real issue is whether agency heads have the determination and guts to exercise their assessment responsibilities," points out Hsu Yu-fu. The basic status of civil servants is guaranteed by law and they cannot be cashiered lightly; meanwhile those dismissed with a "D" grading will lose their pension entitlement, so departmental heads shrink from drastic action from sympathetic considerations and to avoid a backlash, which, means there is no effective way of weeding out unsuitable personnel.
"From now on we are going to lay down more precise conditions in the assessment rules, so that those who receive "C' gradings two years running will be forced to retire or face the sack." At the same time, Wu San-ling points out, to ensure fairness each department must set up an assessment committee to avoid the departmental head's own views exercising too much influence. And it will be possible to lodge an administrative appeal against dismissal.
The new assessment rules are being discussed and drawn up by the CPA and the Ministry of Personnel, but future approval by the Legislature is still an unknown quantity. Hsu Pin-sung stresses: "Civil servants' constitutional protection is to protect them from politically motivated dismissal or demotion in the event of a change of government, which would interrupt government administration; it's certainly not designed to protect inefficient personnel."
In other countries where there's a change of prime minister or president or a change of ruling party, permanent civil servants are protected by law so they can continue to execute government policy.
"Meanwhile civil servants must observe administrative neutrality and not let party affiliations hamper their duties," Hsu adds.
Taiwan's civil servants are facing new changes with the arrival of two-party politics. With last year's Democratic Progressive Party's election triump in Taipei county, Ilan county and Chiayi city, many civil servants are gaining experience of serving two parties.
Party politics is the pattern for the future. To promote civil service administrative neutrality the Examination Yuan is drafting a civil servants' "constitution"--the Civil Service Basic Law defining the rights and duties of government personnel, civil servants, law officers and state-run enterprise employees.
This new law will revolutionize the civil service--it permits the establishment of a quasi trade union "civil servants' association" whereby they can legally band together to negotiate with their employer--the state--putting-paid to the idea that "civil servants have no individual freedom."
"Similar associations already exist in the advanced countries of Europe, America and Japan," Hsu Pin-sung points out. "This will transform relations between the state and its civil servants."
Taiwan has already witnessed symptoms of disruption since the lifting of martial law, so wouldn't this extension of civil rights to civil servants, who have so far been bound hand and foot, simply bring about further chaos?
"That might be unavoidable at first, but if civil servants can enter into dialogue with government representatives and the two sides can put their heads together, the result will be more reasonable working conditions and procedures. This can only benefit the advancement of government policy," Hsu avers.
The civil service, the "oldest profession" among Taiwan's middle classes, is steadily transforming itself. It may prove a long haul through the transitional stage, though, as many of the agencies more remote from the pulse of society have yet to feel the full brunt of pressure for change, and local organs are slower to change than central ones. But judging from trends in policy and legislation, the ripples of change are spreading fast.
[Picture Caption]
Civil servants have entered a transition al phase marked by higher educational standards, lower average age and greater specialization; they even dress differently from before.
As the situation of the civil service becomes more "bearish," business at supplementary schools specializing in the civil service exam has boomed. (Photo by Pu Hua-Chih)
Many civil servants are turning into "Night owls" in the drive to eradicate illicit businesses.
Specialization is the trend in today's increasingly complex society. (photo by Vincent Chang)
On the "crisis management" course, trainees simulate how officials in other countries handle emergencies. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)
ROC's 530,000 civil servants have the chance to go on a training course once every three years on average. (photo from Sinorama files)
Working late at the GIO's domestic department, a bowl of instant noodles helps staff on overtime make it through the night.
Taipei City Government's old building is to be demolished when a new "home" for the city's public servants goes up in the Hsinyi Project Area. (photo from Sinorma files)
As the situation of the civil service becomes more "bearish," business at supplementary schools specializing in the civil service exam has boomed. （Photo by Pu Hua-Chih）
Many civil servants are turning into "Night owls" in the drive to eradicate illicit businesses.
Specialization is the trend in today's increasingly complex society. （photo by Vincent Chang）
On the "crisis management" course, trainees simulate how officials in other countries handle emergencies. （photo by Pu Hua-chih）
ROC's 530,000 civil servants have the chance to go on a training course once every three years on average. （photo from Sinorama files）
Taipei City Government's old building is to be demolished when a new "home" for the city's public servants goes up in the Hsinyi Project Area. （photo from Sinorma files）
Working late at the GIO's domestic department, a bowl of instant noodles helps staff on overtime make it through the night.
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