Vietnam plans to award state employees another hefty pay rise from January, increasing their basic pay by more than 50 percent in just 12 months, in a bid to reduce the incentive for corruption, officials said on Monday.
Under the recommendation from the state salaries reform commission chaired by First Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, the basic wage for state employees would rise from 180,000 dong (12.8 dollars) a month to 210,000 dong (15 dollars), Government Office official Hoang Thi Hue told AFP.
The basic wage was already increased from 144,000 dong (9.5 dollars) this January as part of the government's efforts to improve public administration and root out corruption.
The pay increases are being funded by a massive wave of redundancies announced last year aimed at axing 195,000 jobs from a state payroll of 1.3 million.
But observers have expressed skepticism about the government's ability to meet its target as civil service jobs are a lucrative source of patronage.
Officials acknowledge that over the past five years the state actually took on 220,000 new employees, or an increase in its workforce of around 4.8 percent a year -- HANOI(AFP) -
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