More than 2,000 public servants leaving service after this year: Sansan

MORE than 2,000 public servants aged 65 and above will be retiring this year, according to Department of Personnel Management secretary Taias Sansan.
Sansan said the five-year retirement plan starting this year would see 2,150 public servants retiring, costing about K430 million.
“I understand that some agencies have submitted their retirement list of personnel from 60 years but only those at 65 years and over will be considered first this year,” she said.
Sansan addressed department heads, provincial administrators, heads of statutory bodies, chief executive officers of provincial health authorities and public servants in Port Moresby yesterday. The three-day workshop focused on cost-cutting policy measures and addressing the abuse of delegated powers by agency heads.
She warned that the retirement exercise would leave a lot of vacancies in the public service and urged government agencies to come up with plans to address that.
“Some agencies will have a significant number of officers retiring as a result of this exercise,” she said.
“This is a very important exercise and we will assess the situation in light of the Special General Orders in terms of vacancies created through the retirement exercise and the need to fill these vacancies as soon as possible.”
The retirement exercise this year would not include teachers.
“It is important to note that this exercise does not include teachers for this year,” she said.
Sansan said the exemption of teachers was mainly due to incorrect date of births, or absence of this information on the payroll system