Parliament outlines civil service reforms

The meeting included a number of committees. (Credit: Parliament.mn)

The Mongolian Parliament (the Great Hural, as it’s known) has outlined its vision for civil service reforms that it says are needed to improve performance and combat ‘irresponsible behaviour’.

The meeting on Tuesday, almost two years since new civil service laws were brought in, included a number of standing committees covering ethics, social policy and innovation.

“Today, about 60 per cent of [Mongolia’s] 198,000 civil servants are young people born since 1980,” B. Baatarzorig, Chairman of the Civil Service Council, said. “There is a need to change the approach, understanding and attitudes of the civil service. Reforms are being carried out based on merit principles, promotion systems and research.”

Baatarzorig revealed that the civil service exams are now entirely digital and that the government’s internal HR software is now connected to the payroll systems, which presumably allows for a more corporate-style performance-based rewards system.

L. Enkh-Amgalan, Chairman of the Standing Committee on State Structure, said that this merit-based system will better reflect civil servants’ skills and productivity.

“We have to solve the social and economic problems of our civil servants,” Enkh-Amgalan said. “In reality, after paying a salary of 400-500 thousand MNT, it is useless to demand [that they] work day and night.

“Therefore, there is a need to introduce a performance-based system for civil servants. The more skilled and productive people are, the higher their salaries and social security should be.”

The digital transition of the civil service and its push for a corporate-style performance-based system could help alleviate some of the bureaucratic burden weighing on foreign investment.

In 2019, the World Bank rated Mongolia 81st out of 190 countries for ‘ease of doing business’.

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