Ministry of Economy and Finance to Prevent Personnel Concentration in Budget and Taxation... Revising Personnel Standards [Gangwa in]

Briefing on Overhaul of Regular Personnel Transfer Criteria
for Assistant Directors and Below

The Ministry of Economy and Finance has decided to completely overhaul the regular personnel transfer criteria for officials at the level of assistant director and below. The current system is judged to cause excessive morale decline by promoting personnel concentration and overheated competition in preferred divisions such as Budget, Taxation, and International Finance. The Ministry plans to mandate rotational assignments every two years for junior assistant directors and change the system so that senior assistant directors are selected directly by Grade 1 officials. Internally, there are many reactions expressing confusion about this. Contrary to the intention of preventing overheated competition, the system that grants Grade 1 officials the authority to select senior assistant directors may instead foster excessive 'internal reputation competition.'

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 24th, the Personnel Department held an internal briefing on the 23rd to present the plan to reform the regular personnel transfer criteria for assistant directors and below. The Ministry explained the reason for the comprehensive revision by stating, “The current personnel system, which focuses on matching based on individual preferences, causes overheated competition for preferred divisions and leads to morale decline.”

Until now, regular personnel transfers for assistant directors at the Ministry have been conducted every three years. Assistant directors who have worked for three years were, in principle, transferred to other divisions. When the transfer period arrived, assistant directors submitted a ranking of preferred departments, and the respective divisions matched the desired assistant directors for the transfer. However, the Ministry has operated a mandatory personnel system allowing those in positions requiring expertise to continue working beyond three years.

Because of this, every regular personnel transfer season, the Ministry has experienced more intense competition than any other ministry. This is because the number of assistant directors wanting to continue working beyond three years or newly enter preferred divisions such as Budget, Taxation, and International Finance exceeded the available positions.

An official from the Ministry said, “Taxation and other divisions, which are considered preferred departments because they offer relatively better work-life balance and opportunities to develop expertise compared to policy lines, are highly sought after,” adding, “However, since Taxation has a high proportion of mandatory personnel, the available slots are very limited, but many assistant directors want to enter, making competition fierce.” Morale decline among assistant directors who fail to enter preferred divisions is inevitable.

The Ministry viewed this competition as excessively overheated and revised the personnel criteria. The core change is to mandate rotation for 'junior' assistant directors to gain experience in various departments and to have 'senior' assistant directors selected directly by Grade 1 officials.

Going forward, those with six to seven years of service or less will be classified as generalists (explorers) and will rotate every two years among three groups: Budget & Taxation, Policy, and Finance & International. Those with more than six to seven years of service will be specialists (advanced/development phase), with each Grade 1 official (Budget, Taxation, Planning, Policy, Finance, International) selecting assistant directors in a pre-agreed order. Mandatory personnel will be allowed only in exceptional cases, recognized only when unavoidable for continuity of work such as the next general manager, deputy, or main officer.

Opinions among the assistant directors subject to personnel changes are divided. There is considerable resistance, especially to the specialist system. Assistant Director A said, “It is desirable for junior assistant directors to rotate every two years to gain diverse experience,” but added, “Having Grade 1 officials select senior assistant directors one by one seems intended to rank and rate individuals, which is unacceptable.”

Assistant Director B said, “The personnel system revision, which strengthens competition among senior assistant directors, is causing confusion,” and added, “It seems to be a personnel system heavily centered on the user’s perspective, which is confusing.” Assistant Director C said, “Junior assistant directors will be assigned as directed by the Personnel Department, and senior assistant directors will be assigned according to the wishes of Grade 1 officials,” and criticized, “Ultimately, if you want to go to a specific division, it will become most important to be in good standing with Grade 1 officials.”

He continued, “Currently, working hard leads to securing a position in a preferred division, but in the future, the harder you work, the more likely you are to be selected for the policy line, where the workload is excessively high, which will rather reduce work motivation.” Budget and Taxation have 10 departments, International and Finance have 7 departments, but Policy has only 4 departments, so the harder you work, the more likely you are to be selected for the policy line, he explained.