Search for greener pastures, stifling rules, or pressures from rigid bosses are said to be reasons why civil servants decide to quit their jobs.

And most of them have opted for private firms, international organizations and active politics.

But the Royal Civil Service Commission doesn’t seem very much worried about the four PhD holders and 106 post graduates who had left the civil service in the past five years.

An RCSC official said the commission recognizes the need to help strengthen human resource capacity in the private and corporate sectors.

“With a strong and vibrant private or corporate sector, civil service can focus on core functions,” said the official.

Moreover, civil servants who join international organizations will only benefit the country, he added.

But resignations from medical practitioners and teachers in tertiary institutes may pose a problem in the future, the official said.

Some of the civil servants who have resigned from service, mostly masters degree holders, said they opted for greener pastures where there were paid more.

Although they admitted that job security was a major concern in the private sector, money mattered.
Though RCSC cited better financial prospects, health issues, and politics as reasons for civil servants leaving, a few   BT talked to said there was very limited room to grow within the civil service.

“It takes ages to get promoted according to the amount of work one does in the civil service,” 

In a few cases, employees had quit jobs because of their immediate bosses.

Karma Dorji (name changed), a former civil engineer, said his boss’s attitude made him resign.

“Somewhere down the line, bosses forget that they deal with real people who have feelings,” he said. “It is impossible to leave one’s emotions behind when one comes for work.”

Most said bosses need to be a compassionate human being first and a professional manager later.

Plans to retain brains

Meanwhile the RCSC, to retain employees, plans to offer better training opportunities, recognition and incentives for high performers.

Currently, a civil servant on higher studies under a government scholarship has to serve the government twice the number of years he takes to finish the course.

But now RCSC has revised the long-term obligation.

If a civil servant goes on a long-term course for the first time, he will be under a service obligation of two times the duration of course and has to pay two times the total amount incurred as financial penalty if he resigns.

Similarly for the second long-term course, the person will have to serve three times the duration of the course and will have to bear a financial penalty of three times the total expenditure incurred.

For the third time long-term course, he will have to serve for four times the duration of course and pay a financial penalty of four times the total expenditure if they resign.

As of now, only one civil servant who has completed his masters’ degree from Melbourne University in Australia did not return and disciplinary action was taken.

Clause 70 of the Civil Service bill states, “The commission shall endeavor to prevent brain drain or other losses of trained civil servants, especially experts and other professional, through provision of appropriate incentives, effective implementation of training obligation as may be prescribed in the BSCR and other similar policy measure.”

The RCSC said, the incentives however must be adequate to attract and retain qualified and performing civil servants and must be comparable to the market opportunities and incentives.

There are currently 15 PhD holders and 935 post graduates in the government.