A legislator on Tuesday said the plan to “right size” the bureaucracy will not reduce the number of national government workers, as the hiring of essential personnel, such as teachers and nurses, is dictated by population increase.
“Rightsizing would mean downsizing the personnel complement in some agencies but upsizing them in many,” Batangas Rep. Ralph Recto said.
He said: “Population growth is the most influential HR (human resources) recruiter, one that is impossible to ignore.”
A mere 1,000 increase in the country’s population also triggers the hiring of one policeman and one nurse, the former senator added.
“And how many people are born in this country every 24 hours? About 3,838. So, every six hours, we have to, ideally, recruit one policeman and one nurse,” Recto said, citing the “suitable” 1-to-1,000 personnel-to-population ratio for the two professions.
The country’s population, the 13th biggest in the world, increased by 1.4 million from 2020 to 2021, he noted.
Recto said a conservative 300,000 increase in annual public school enrollment requires the hiring of 7,500 teachers.
“Plus, you build an equal number of classrooms,” he added.
Babies born in a span of 15 minutes today would show up at the gates of public schools six years later to occupy one classroom, he said.
Recto said the “right” rightsizing project should be driven by the mission to boost government service and not merely to cut payroll expenses.
“The idea is to scrap unnecessary positions and use them to create essential ones, or use the savings from abolished items to fill the shortage of critical workforce,” he said.
He said the government is grappling with a lack of personnel on two fronts: health, and science and engineering.
The country has a shortage of 92,000 doctors, 44,000 nurses, and 19,000 medical technologists, Recto said, citing a Health official’s recent testimony before the Senate.
Recto said the government’s “personnel service” or PS expenses have quietly crept from P593 billion in 2012 to P1.405 trillion this year, a 137% surge in 10 years.
Taxpayers are shelling out P3.850 billion daily for the salary and allowances of national government personnel and the pension of retired servicemen.