Apr.04.2008 11:07TOKYO, April 4 KYODO
The government on Friday drew up a bill to reform Japan's public servant system, including the creation of a Cabinet personnel agency designed to offer advice to Cabinet members in personnel affairs at each ministry and agency.
The bill, endorsed by the Cabinet in the morning, also calls for establishing disciplinary rules on direct contact between politicians and bureaucrats to prevent collusion while proposing abolishing the existing fast-track promotion system for career bureaucrats.
The bill has been drawn up at a time when people's confidence in public servants has been shaken in the wake of a series of scandals, including bribery by a former vice defense minister and pension-record blunders at the Social Insurance Agency.
The government wants to see the bill passed during the ongoing regular Diet session but its fate is uncertain given that the upper house is controlled by the opposition camp.
The envisaged Cabinet personnel agency may draw criticism during Diet deliberations. It is seen as toothless by some because a key recommendation made earlier by an advisory panel was dropped from the bill.
The panel had proposed creating a Cabinet agency fully in charge of government personnel affairs -- currently managed by each ministry and agency.
But the government decided to pass over the recommendation amid apparent resistance from bureaucrats. Instead, the bill would limit the role of the agency to providing information and advice to Cabinet members in carrying out personnel management at their ministries and agencies.
Under the bill, each ministry and agency would continue to formulate a blueprint for key personnel posts. The bill says the envisaged agency can compile a list of candidates for key posts, if necessary.
The idea of banning direct contacts between politicians and bureaucrats was also dropped, following strong objections from many lawmakers within the ruling coalition parties who say such a step would hamper a free exchange of views.
The bill instead proposed creating new specialist posts in charge of assisting Cabinet members in policy briefings to lawmakers. It calls for establishing disciplinary steps, including requiring instructions by Cabinet members for contact between politicians and bureaucrats other than those in the proposed specialist posts.
Other proposals put forward in the bill include posting national strategic staffers at the Cabinet Secretariat to help the prime minister formulate primary policies.
The fast-track promotion system for elite bureaucrats would be drastically reorganized into one in which three types of posts -- general managerial employees, ordinary employees and employees with professional expertise -- are created.
The bill says the government wants to take necessary measures to implement these proposals within five years following the law's enforcement. The envisaged Cabinet personnel agency is to be set up within one year, it says.
==Kyodo
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