\Amman, July 11 (Petra) - Hiba Al-Ississ and Haitham Abu Hammad - Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of State for Public Sector Modernization Nasser Shraideh stated in a press conference on Wednesday that the Prime Minister directed the government to form a ministerial committee concerned with studying the impact of preventing dual employment for government employees, which came into effect on July 1, stressing the government's openness to taking the necessary corrective measures to ensure that citizens' living conditions are not affected, which is considered a top priority for His Majesty King Abdullah II and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II.
Shraideh added that the new resources system and civil service rate came with the aim of preserving the financial rights acquired by workers appointed before the system came into effect, and it was not intended to affect employees' living rights, but rather to improve the services provided to citizens and facilitate their access to them.
He explained that the ministerial committee formed to study the impact will take into consideration whether preventing the combination of two jobs will affect cadres in terms of acquiring new knowledge and skills through their work in the private sector on the one hand or transferring their expertise to the private sector on the other hand, and the final directions will be announced upon completion of this study. Al
-Shuraidah explained that before the system came into effect, there was a central decision on all employee affairs and the selection and appointment mechanism, in consultation with the relevant ministries and institutions, noting that the new system assigned the Civil Service and Public Administration Authority, which is responsible for preparing policies and legislation and ensuring the compliance of ministries, the process of oversight and regulation, and separating it from the executive side of employee affairs work, through direct oversight to ensure transparency and fairness in the implementation of these policies and legislation related to the human resources system, to create a distinctive model capable of achieving justice and reducing nepotism.
He added that administrative modernization in the comprehensive modernization vision launched by His Majesty the King at the beginning of the second century is a basic lever to achieve political and economic modernization through an empowered and effective public sector, and to improve the service of the nation and the citizen, indicating that what the public sector modernization map sought to achieve is in achieving what they aspire to through the systems that were recently launched, in improving the quality of services provided and the desired development in restructuring ministries and institutions, and the accompanying review of the legislation that defines and regulates the relationship with human resources, which established the new human resources system and the civil service rate.
He explained that launching this system is concerned with developing individual and institutional performance, drawing up policies, raising the competitiveness of salaries and competencies and their readiness, enhancing institutional culture, and obligating institutions to work on improving the work environment for creativity, innovation and production. Al-
Shuraidah explained that the desired results of the new human resources system are to develop individual performance, as the human element is one of the most important components of administrative modernization, and to include the concept of training and continuous education, in addition to creating a new position under the name of "career guide" to be held by one of the members of the ministry or institution who has advanced experience and can transfer it to his colleagues to help them perform their work in the required manner.
Regarding unpaid leave, Al-Shuraidah explained that the new regulations were designed to regulate it, as they allow employees to take a leave of up to four months maximum per year, for a period of 12 months throughout the employee’s work period, stressing the government’s keenness to find a balance between what personal needs require and what ministries and institutions need to maintain their competencies and attract new competencies, to enable them to perform their services at the required level.
He pointed out that approximately 13,000 employees have unpaid leave out of 220,000 employees, and there are 8,000 employees who have unpaid leave working inside and outside Jordan. When looking at these numbers, some leaves were found that have exceeded 15 to 20 years, explaining that this creates a job vacancy for a long time, and deprives job seekers of it in light of the high unemployment rate in the Kingdom.
He added that reserving the vacancy affects the performance of the institution and the level of services it provides, and the lack of people with the experience that the unpaid person had, stressing that the public interest takes precedence over narrow interests, and at the same time the employee has the choice to remain in his other job or return to his work in the public sector according to what his interest requires, but without depriving anyone of these opportunities.
Regarding the involvement of civil society institutions in launching the new system, Al-Shuraidah explained that the concerned committee has most of its members from civil society representatives, and has developed a concept paper on the human resources component that came within the seven components of administrative modernization, which are human resources development, organizational structure and governance, policy-making and decision-making, institutional culture, procedures and digitization, legislation, and government services, indicating that it is published on the website dedicated to administrative modernization, and in light of this document, which was launched at the beginning of 2023, work began on developing a human resources strategy in the public sector in consultation with various stakeholders with experience and administrative affairs in preparing and developing it.
He added that it was approved by the Council of Ministers last August, and that the principles contained in the human resources strategy were reflected in the new system and strategy, which aims in general to develop, modernize and balance interest in institutions and ministries, and employees. It also balanced interest in developing institutional performance and individual performance, and provided many tools and flexibility in motivating public employee performance, and enabled the development of the appropriate framework for competencies and attracting them to work in the public sector, and providing legislative frameworks for this purpose.
Regarding early retirement and old age, Al-Shuraidah indicated that nothing has changed in its rules, and it is governed by the Social Security Law, but some provisions of the new system and the civil service rate referred to it, and did not bring anything new to it, indicating that the size of the public sector is appropriate and there is no intention to reduce it, and it needs the cadres present in it to carry out the tasks assigned to it.
Al-Shuraidah stressed that this system came as a result of the thinking of the sons of this country, and is not imported from abroad, but the committees worked hard for a year and a half to study the requirements and previous and subsequent effects of all parts of the system.
Regarding salaries, Al-Shuraidah pointed out that unifying salaries in the public sector is one of the most important features of the new system, as salaries are paid to jobs and not to individuals according to the relative importance of the job, by adopting a technical and quantitative evaluation mechanism that determines its importance and the competencies required to occupy it and an appointment mechanism based on a transparent mechanism for selecting and appointing people capable of performing the jobs, noting that giving importance to the job and developing individual performance is what will be reflected in institutional development and the services provided.
Regarding the mission, Al-Shuraidah confirmed that it has not been cancelled, but rather it has been reassigned to its original place at the Ministry of Planning, which will adopt the implementation of the mission program abroad to complete studies in specializations required in the labor market, and meet future jobs, and what they seek to implement.
In turn, Minister of State for Legal Affairs Nancy Nimroqa said: The human resources management system will be applied to all employees; Whether those appointed before the system came into force or those appointed after it came into force, while the amended Civil Service System applies to those appointed before the Human Resources System came into force, in order to protect their financial rights related to salaries, increases, bonuses, mandatory promotions, rewards and incentives.
She explained that there are executive instructions that will be issued soon regarding many of the articles included in the Human Resources System, indicating that until these instructions are issued, the system will ensure that the current instructions remain in force.
Namrouqa pointed out that what distinguishes the human resources system is that it contains clear, simple and transparent procedures that include many guarantees for the employee, such as evaluating his performance transparently and fairly and according to his performance without any other considerations, in addition to the fact that the system came with a new concept for the first time within the civil service systems, "which is to motivate exceptional performance by disbursing incentive incentives to employees similar to bonuses or the thirteenth and fourteenth salary.
She said that the main goal of incentive incentives in the human resources management system is to improve work and motivate the employee's exceptional performance during his work, which is positively reflected in the service provided by the department and the level of services it provides to citizens, stressing in this regard that an exceptional incentive cannot be given to everyone, but this incentive must be given to the employee who provides a distinguished and exceptional performance, and depends on the performance evaluation.
Namrouqa pointed out that the text in the human resources system regarding party affiliation is the same as that in the civil service system in 2020, "and the human resources system did not bring anything new regarding parties."
She explained that Article (6) of the Political Parties Law of 2017 2022 has identified a few categories of job holders who are prohibited from joining parties to prevent political and partisan conflicts, except for that, the rest of the public sector employees are allowed, according to the constitution and the party law, to belong to and form parties.
Namrouqa reviewed a number of new positives of the human resources management system, most notably the existence of several forms of appointment, such as the concept of part-time work, which means appointing an employee to achieve a specific goal by working specific hours per day, week or month, stressing that this type of contract did not exist in all previous civil service systems.
She added that the human resources management system includes legal tools through which an employee can object to his performance evaluation, in addition to the chapter related to grievances.
Regarding exceptional performance, Namrouqa explained that the human resources system grants 150 percent of the monthly salary to an employee who receives an appreciation for completing tasks with distinction for two years, while an employee who achieves with distinction for one year preceded by a year of exceptional performance is granted 100 percent of the monthly salary. In contrast, an employee who performs his duties according to the required level is granted 50 percent of his monthly salary for one year prior to the year of exceptional performance.
For his part, Minister of Government Communication Dr. Muhannad Al-Mubaideen said: This conference was held under the direction of Prime Minister Dr. Bishr Al-Khasawneh to answer inquiries and questions about the human resources management system and the amended civil service system, and to provide accurate information to citizens and the media.
He added: "The government has taken it upon itself to correct the situation, and if there is a mistake, we admit it and go back on it. We must be clear about the fate of our country and the needs of our society, and be frank with the media, which we rely on as a lever for administrative modernization."
Al-Mubaideen pointed out that the government has given its attention to the three modernization paths; Political, economic and administrative, noting in this regard that the roadmap for modernizing the public sector went through two years of work and study by experts and representatives of civil society institutions, former human resources managers, and current and former ministers, and it was launched in the presence of the media.
He pointed out that the public sector has witnessed a decline in the past decade, which required new measures to save this decline and some of the existing defects in the sector, "which we believe is an important sector that serves citizens and has successes and achievements."
He also stressed that the government responds to citizens' comments and does not distance itself from them, and that the questions raised are legitimate, "but no one doubts the integrity and patriotism of those who worked on administrative modernization, which is a clear Jordanian effort."
For his part, Chairman of the Civil Service and Administration Authority Sameh Al-Nasser said: The main goal of reform is to raise the level of performance, which is considered the employee's security in the next stage and his obtaining his incentives and promotion, indicating that the Kingdom is in a comprehensive development phase and that administrative modernization is the lever of political and economic modernization.
He stressed that the government is working hard to implement the royal vision, according to the roadmap for modernizing the public sector and the human resources system, noting that the necessary forms and instructions will be issued to enforce these systems in the coming phase and evaluate them as required.
He pointed out that at the end of this month, the basic instructions will be reviewed by the Council of Ministers, stressing the work to develop the skills and capabilities of workers, draw up policies, and enforce the provisions of the resources system and the civil service rate early next month.