Cape Verde
Cape Verde to count its state employees

afrol News, 15 April - A week ago, a Cape Verdean media asked its readership: "How many people are employed in the public services?" The answer was "Nobody knows" - and it was not a joke. The government actually had been taken by surprise, but today announced it would make a census of its employees.

Government officials in Praia today made public that a census of all state employees would be launched within an information and sensitising campaign which is to last for an estimated two months. 

An embarrassing question revealed that the total number of workers employed in the public administration of the island state was unknown and not possible to establish from existing data. The inability to answer this basic question has created a great interest, although downplayed by the government, only interested in mapping "all facts related to the human resources at the disposal of the public sector in the country."

The unexpected lack of basic information has been turned to something positive. Thanks to the new census, the government now is planning how it can develop an entirely new strategy in relation to the effective use of the human capital at its disposal. 

It is however not the first time in Cape Verde's 27 years of independent history that the government decides to register its employees. A similar campaign to register publicly employed human resources was launched in 1998, but the project was never brought to its end and no final numbers were ever produced.

Observers also hold that the new census might be related to the drastic cuts in public spending initiated in Cape Verde. Several public companies have been presented with limited budgets and been advised to lay off workers - notably the Cape Verdean public transport company TRANSCOR, which recently was obliged to lay off 260 of its employees. 

The relatively large number of dismissals in this small nation has caused public concern and the government, trade unions and workers have started negotiations to reach an agreement to pay indemnifications to the workers affected by the ongoing restructuring of public companies. These companies are mostly set to be privatised within a few years.

Government officials, eager to be counted, informed today that the new census of public employees will be started immediately and be finished by June this year. It is organised in cooperation between central government, local governments on the islands and the National Institute of Cape Verde.