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Spain Civil Service
Part of the Francoist legacy to Spain was a highly
inefficient and cumbersome civil service apparatus.
Attempts to
reform and to streamline the system of public
administration have
been hampered by the bureaucracy's traditional resistance
to
change.
Under Franco, the civil service system was dominated by
cuerpos, professional associations of engineers,
lawyers,
economists, etc., within the civil service, which also
performed
functions similar to those of trade unions and fraternal
organizations. Admission to a cuerpo was on the
basis of a
competitive examination that was judged by the current
members.
The cuerpo served as a channel for civil servants
to make
their demands to the appropriate minister. In addition,
the
cuerpos were able to exercise considerable
influence over
hiring and firing of persons for key administrative
positions,
thereby enabling them to protect their own economic
interests.
Loyalty to the cuerpo came to take precedence over
administrative interests, and rivalry among these bodies
added to
the inefficiency of the system by hampering coordination
among
departments.
This bloated bureaucracy extended to the provincial
level,
where it became increasingly difficult to control. As
civil
servants increased in number, administrative efficiency
declined
and corruption flourished. Because of the low salaries
traditionally paid to civil servants, the practice of
holding
more than one job was common. This in turn resulted in
fewer
hours devoted to administrative functions and a further
reduction
in efficiency.
In spite of intermittent efforts to reorganize this
unwieldy
structure, the civil service did not undergo significant
change
in the immediate post-Franco years. The cuerpos
retained
their influence, and the bureaucracy proliferated. In 1981
the
number of civil servants had reached 1.2 million.
Moreover,
multiple job-holding had not been eliminated, despite
constitutional restrictions against this practice.
When the PSOE came to power in 1982, its leaders took
steps
to reduce the number of civil servants and to require that
they
put in a full workday. The government introduced more
stringent
legislation against multiple job-holding, and it also
endeavored
to reduce ministerial rivalry. A departmental
reorganization was
carried out in July 1986, at which time the coordination
and the
overall control of the civil service became the
responsibility of
the Ministry of Public Administration.
Nevertheless, the bureaucratic behemoth had not
suffered a
mortal blow, and most of the abuses were not effectively
eliminated. An indication of the resistance to change that
prevailed in the civil service was the continued existence
of
very slow service and therefore of gestorias
administrativas, i.e., private firms, the employees of
which
filled out forms and stood in line for customers, who
considered
the time saved well worth the price charged. Meaningful
reform of
the civil service remained on the government's wish list
in the
late 1980s.
Data as of December 1988
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