According to data from the Royal Civil Service Commission a total of 1,722 civil servants have resigned from January to 25th May 2023. This comprises of 1,333 regular civil servants and 389 contract civil servants.
In the whole of 2022 a total of 1,538 civil servants voluntarily resigned made up of 1,038 regular civil servants and 500 contract civil servants. The 2022 figure excludes early retirement scheme for older civil servants.
The data for 2023 shows that a total of 2,416 civil servants have separated from the service but this includes not only the 1,722 resignations but also 428 civil servants in the judiciary who have now been delinked, 109 who superannuated, 126 for contract completion, 11 deaths, 10 withdrawal or cancellation of appointment, 5 terminations and 5 compulsory retirement cases.
As per a RCSC order there is no provision for Early Retirement Scheme in 2023 which was there in the past.
The biggest loss of civil servants is at the Professional and Management level from P 5 to P 1 making up 958 of the voluntary resignations. Here of the total 958 resignations 764 are regular civil servants and 194 are on contract comprising mainly contract teachers in the P 5 and P 4 category.
The biggest loss of regular civil servants is in the P 3 category with 228 regular civil servants followed by P 4 at 168 and then P 2 at 158.
Even the entry level of P 5 lost 142 regular civil servants.
The P 1 level who are supposed to be the future executives lost 68 regular civil servants.
However, there are resignations at all levels with Supervisory and Support from S1 to SS1 losing 650 civil servants which includes 138 on contract.
The Operational side is also not spared with 103 resignations including 57 who are on contract.
There are 447 civil servants on EOL with the largest group again being from P group with 135 from P 3, 90 from P 4, 72 from P 2 and 27 from P 1.
When one looks at the professional groups the largest voluntary resignations are from the teachers comprising of 488 resignations which comprises of 378 regular teachers and 110 contract teachers. 146 teachers are on EOL.
Education Management and Administration services who are mainly Principals and Vice Principals saw 13 resignations.
Counselling services saw 19 resignations.
The next biggest professional group that had resigned was medical with 183 resignations. The largest group within this was 98 nurses resigning of whom 32 were on contract and 66 were regular staff.
Nine doctors were lost too. 5 were lost from radiology and technical services, 7 from traditional medicine, 10 from pharmaceutical services, 9 from medical technical services, 46 from laboratory support services and 5 from physiotherapy.
The medical group has 71 EOLs which includes 5 doctors and 26 nurses.
125 resigned from the administration services which consists of Dzongrabs, Drungpa, administration officers, procurement officers, Gewog Adm Officers, Personal Secretary, Personal Assistant, drivers etc.
70 resigned from engineering services with 19 on EOL, 60 from forestry services with 7 on EOL, 45 from finance, accounting and budgeting services with 11 on EOL, 44 from program services like program officers with 17 on EOL, 46 from revenue services like revenue and customs, 22 from Agriculture and Livestock production services with 9 on EOL, 17 from Audit services, 8 from Aviation, 35 from extension services with 6 on EOL, 15 from HR with 12 on EOL, 25 from ICT with 9 on EOL, 13 from immigration, 9 from ACC, 10 from internal audit, 8 from land services, 16 from library services, 10 from meteorology services, 13 from planning with 12 on EOL, 21 from sports services, 9 from statistical services, 4 from trade services and 5 from industries.
The resignation numbers are expected to shoot up by June and July for the second intake in Australia and again towards the end of the year.
The loss of the large numbers of civil servants is affecting service delivery and projects across agencies.
If one compares the data to the past there were 892 voluntary resignations in 2021, 542 in 2020, 568 in 2019, 609 in 2018, 471 in 2017, 372 in 2016, 260 in 2015, 253 in 2014, 377 in 2013, 298 in 2012, 257 in 2011, 252 in 2010, 192 in 2009 and 196 voluntary resignations in 2008.