Dzongkhags service deliveries remain unaffected despite rising attritions

…𝒅𝒖𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒏𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒊-𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚. 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 13𝒕𝒉 𝑭𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒏

Sonam Deki

Civil service employee attrition just continues to rise; from beginning of year 2023 till date about 677 civil servants are reported to have resigned. Employee attritions are not confined to government but other private and corporate sectors have seen similar trend. The vacuums created by these employees have also incapacitated to some degree the functioning of sectors and service deliveries.

The majority of the Dzongkhags are pleased that the 12th five year plan is completed effectively, but they expressed their concern over the 13th five year plan which has to be carried out under the increasing numbers of government employees attrition.

However, it is reported that the number of civil servants leaving from Dzongkhag administration is lower than that of other government agencies of civil servants such as teachers and health officials. The Dzongkhag’s ability to provide services effectively in their respective dzongkhags would be hampered severely to the grassroots level if rising attrition trend and individuals traveling abroad hits the administration.

While some Dzongkhags claimed that they weren’t affected by people moving abroad, the majority of Dzongkhags agreed that this might have an impact on the quality of their services in future.

15 regular employees resigned in Lhuntse Dzongkhag, together with 49 contract employees, and 51 of them from Elementary Service Personal (ESP) /General Service Personal (GSP). Lhuntse Dzongda said, “In term of contract worker, we were able to negotiate a new contract shortly after they resigned, and we still have it now. But, as more people are quitting, we are starting to notice an issue.”

There have been 85 incidents of voluntary resignation since 2021 in Mongar. Mongar Dzongda asserts that the successful completion of the 12th five-year plan has had no impact thus far on the provision of services. “The 13th Five Year Plan, however, might have some hitch, and we would need to restructure to comply with its demands,” he added.
In Zhemgang Dzongkhag, 14 civil servants resigned willingly in 2021 and 2022. The Human Resource (HR) of Zhemgang stated, “Service delivery is unaffected, but the majority of the surviving employees are working two jobs to fill the positions that are vacant.”

167 civil servants resigned from Trashigang Dzongkhag, along with 2 others from the Dzongkhag administration since January 1, 2022.

“It is wonderful to know that the majority of the government servants in the Dzongkhag are multi-tasking, resulting to seamless service delivery,” said the HR of Trashigang.

From 2022 to till date, 30 staffs of Tashi Yangtse Dzongkhag have willingly left their positions. Although there has been higher attrition, the majority of the Dzongkhags have currently received civil servants on transfer, according to the Dzogkhag HR.

Given that there were few employees leaving the service, Sarpang and Chhukha Dzongdas concurred that there was no issue with service delivery.

The Centre for Bhutan and GNH Studies (CBS) researcher Sangay Wangdi conducted a study in October 2021 on Bhutanese civil officials departing for Australia and their reasons for coming back. According to the study, the primary causes of the widespread resignation of government officials were a lack of career mobility, the chance to gain better experience or exposure elsewhere, an inadequate salary, and a lack of adequate feedback inside the system. The turnover will only increase if such things don’t change.