Koizumi Administration's next step in administrative and financial reforms
The promotion of policies towards administrative and financial reforms that have been advanced for more than three and a half years by the Koizumi Administration has now reached a critical juncture in the guise of the decisive push towards privatization of the Japan Highway Public Corporation. All eyes are focused on how the Administration will persuade those opposing forces within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to support the move, or whether the prime minister will submit a privatization bill at his own discretion and force its passage through the Diet.
Meanwhile, in late March, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) drew up new guidelines for local administrative reforms, and notified them to local municipalities. The guidelines call for local governments to draw up a concentrated reform plan for the next 5-year period, aimed at local administrative reforms. Indeed, local administrative reform is also one of the important challenges the Koizumi Administration faces.
The guidelines call for the formulation of a concentrated reform plan to be drawn up by the end of FY2005, covering the period up to FY2009, comprising measures such as rationalization of staff quota management, and rationalization of staff salaries including comprehensive examination of various allowances.
Regarding the total number of staff members, since there is a need to make reductions at rates surpassing the net reduction of the past 5 years (4.6%), the guidelines stipulate that clear-cut numerical targets be established for the next five years and that they be included in the staff quota rationalization plan.
Needless to say, the background to the notification of these guidelines was the Koizumi Administration's major policy of promoting administrative and financial reforms. Another factor, meanwhile, was the fierce criticism from the general public that erupted out in the wake of the recent exposure of lavish retirement packages decided by, and provided to, certain local government officials, as well as the inappropriate provision of allowances such as the provision of business suits to staff members.
A major trend being seen is to demand local municipalities to ensure efficiency and fairness and to enhance transparency through the promotion of e-government at the local level, to boost monitoring functions, and utilize administrative evaluation systems. Those calling for active disclosure of information on the part of municipalities that includes staff salaries and staff quotas, are becoming louder and more vociferous than ever before.
Moreover, MIC's Study Group on the Salary of Local Government Employees has called for the implementation of a special survey targeting a broader scope of private corporations that would provide material for comparing and studying the wage disparities between the public and private sectors.
Specifically, the survey will expand the scope of establishments to be surveyed, from the conventional "business office scale of 50 or more employees which belong to a company with 100 or more employees" to "business office scale of 30 or more employees which belong to a company with less than 100 employees." In response to this proposal by the Study Group, MIC plans to carry out a survey with several local municipalities in FY2005. This has been noted as another new move that could lead to a revision in government employees' salaries.
These series of moves provide a glimpse of the tactics employed by Prime Minister Koizumi, known for his quickness at seizing an opportunity and ably gauging public sentiment to best time an offensive.
