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Nicaragua Public Administration
Nicaragua's public employees are not perceived as
civil
servants; new appointments are usually made on the basis
of
political patronage rather than through a selection system
based
on merit. Nevertheless, both the Sandinista government and
the
Chamorro government have respected the positions of those
whom
they found occupying public administration posts when each
successive government took power. The primary motive of
the
Sandinista government, which took power after a
revolution, may
have been expediency, as it needed at least a core of
persons who
had occupied posts under the previous Somoza
administration to
instruct it in the workings of the government. In the case
of the
Chamorro government, the position of public employees was
guaranteed by the transition pacts and was protected by
law.
Public employee ranks include not only office workers
but
also medical and other professional personnel hired by the
Sandinista government to work in public programs and
state-owned
businesses. Soon after the Chamorro government took power,
the
number of public employees was estimated in newspaper
accounts at
150,000, most of whom were Sandinistas. Efforts to
restructure
the laws to eliminate some public employees led to a
strike in
May 1990
(see Interest Groups
, ch. 4). When the Chamorro
government sought in early 1991 to cut the number of
public
employees, it had to offer incentives for workers who
volunteered
to leave, as well as additional incentives for businesses
to hire
former government workers or for the workers themselves to
set up
private enterprises. By the time the severance program
expired in
April 1992, some 23,000 workers had resigned to take
advantage of
the plan, and some 20,000 soldiers and police officers has
been
dismissed.
Data as of December 1993
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