The Bhutanese Leading the way.
From 1 January to 30 December 2022 the attrition rate or rate of civil servants separating from the civil service for all reasons has jumped to 6.75 percent compared to 4.82 percent in 2021 or even 2.95 percent in 2019 before the pandemic hit.
A total of 2,529 civil servants have separated from the civil service of which 1,488 have voluntarily resigned (Box 1).
The data shows that 2022 has seen the highest number of separations and voluntary resignations than compared to the past years as many head for further studies to Australia.
For example, in 2021 a total of 1,504 people had separated from the civil service and 892 had voluntarily resigned (Box 2 and 4).
In 2022 of the 2,529 who separated from the service the largest group to have separated is teachers at 778 of them.
Another 197 teachers have taken Extraordinary Leave (EOL) meaning a total of 975 teachers are currently out due to separation and EOL.
The second biggest occupation group is in the medical and health group where around 270 of them have separated from the group and another 84 have gone on EOL bringing the total to 355 of them.
A big concern here is the number of doctors and nurses separating or going on EOL.
Of this group 13 medical doctors have separated while another 13 have gone on EOL. Nurses who are critical for medical care are leaving in numbers as 88 have separated and 35 have gone on EOL.
Also of concern is that 3 staff from emergency medical services have left.
Other important technical staff like radiologists, laboratory staff, therapists, technicians, diagnostic staff, etc are also leaving or going on EOL.
99 Engineers, including some road inspectors, have separated and another 26 have gone on EOL.
75 people from the Forest Services have left and another 24 have gone on EOL.
54 ICT services staff have separated while another 11 have gone on EOL.
53 revenue services officers mainly from the Department of Revenue and Customs have separated from service with another 12 going on EOL.
40 from the Financing, Accounting and Budget services have separated while another 40 have gone on EOL.
24 from the planning services have separated while another 8 are on EOL.
53 from program services are separated while another 16 are on EOL.
14 from the survey engineering services have separated while another 6 are on EOL.
14 have left from the Agricultural Production Services and and another 9 are on EOL.
15 Anti Corruption Officials have separated while another 16 have separated from Royal Audit Authority and two more auditors have gone on EOL.
17 from specialist services who are highly trained technical people across agencies have separated while another 4 are on EOL.
18 people from HR Management have left while 7 are on EOL.
12 from legal services have left while 12 are on EOL.
15 Immigration service people have left with 1 on EOL.
14 have left from Tourism Services while 1 is on EOL.
7 from Architecture and Urban planning have left while another 7 are on EOL.
198 have left from administrative positions while 18 are on EOL.
A Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) official had earlier said while the attrition rate is higher than normal it is still lower than places like Singapore at 9 percent, or 12 percent in UK.
Apart from the separations of all types there is a total of 599 EOLs which has reduced from 618 EOLs until October 2022 which shows that now EOLs are being given sparingly. For example, a teacher cannot take EOL in the middle of the academic year.
