Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 152: Chapter 133: Rectifying the Officialdom (Double-Length Chapter) (Part 2)

Carlo did not provide detailed explanations; the specific proposal still needs to be drafted by Prime Minister Prim himself.

The specific regulations are quite simple: various assessments are conducted for government officials at all levels according to their different duties.

Those who are qualified accumulate political achievements, and upon meeting certain achievements, they meet the conditions for promotion. Conversely, if their performance is poor, they must be prepared for demotion or even direct dismissal.

However, doing so will definitely offend a large number of officials, as they are well settled in their current positions and may not be willing to passively move.

Therefore, it’s best for Prime Minister Prim to submit and promulgate such a proposal; Carlo does not intend to get too involved.

Prime Minister Prim does not oppose this either. Such a method can effectively improve administrative efficiency among officials and serve as a means of monitoring them.

Although it will offend some mediocre, unproductive officials, these people are utterly detrimental to the Spanish Government and should be removed sooner rather than later.

Offending people is not a big deal for Prime Minister Prim. The reform has already angered a number of forces; what’s one more?

Because he quite approves of the performance evaluation system proposed by Carlo, within a few days, Prime Minister Prim personally submitted a draft of the “Proposal for Evaluating Officials’ Performance” to parliament.

He personally submitted it because of the importance attached to consolidating the officialdom.

Only with Prime Minister Prim personally submitting such a proposal can the officials see its importance, thus actively achieving the result of consolidating the officialdom.

If anyone still thinks Prime Minister Prim is just posturing, when the knife of integrity and honesty is at their throat, it won’t be his call anymore.

In this draft proposal, Prime Minister Prim divided the Spanish Government into three levels: national government, regional government, and municipal government, all included within the scope of performance evaluation.

Officials at all three government levels who perform excellently can be specially promoted to higher-level governments. Those whose performance is unsatisfactory are lightly punished by demotion, severely by direct dismissal.

Considering this evaluation proposal involves a large number of officials, the evaluation content won’t be excessively stringent.

Basically, as long as officials complete tasks within their scope of duties, they can receive a pass or above rating. If they achieve certain political accomplishments, they will receive an excellent rating in preparation for promotion.

As for those officials who fail even in tasks within their duty scope, leaving them in their positions will only cause adverse effects on the country.

For current Spanish officials, there are many areas where they can add to their achievements. For example, promoting local economic and industrial development, lowering illiteracy rates, promoting literacy education, promoting ethnic integration, and even population development, all can increase their achievements.

As long as there is a slight contribution, reaching a pass level is not difficult.

The main purpose of doing this is to eliminate corrupt and incompetent officials. As long as they have a little ability, they shouldn’t fail to achieve any accomplishments.

According to the Spanish constitution, parliament has the power to appoint and dismiss officials at all government levels. So as long as the proposal is passed by parliament, the performance evaluation for the three levels of government can be smoothly implemented.

This proposal caused an uproar in parliament, even making some legislators who originally supported Prime Minister Prim hesitate.

This evaluation system is unprecedented and will break the system of aristocratic preference and seniority that has long been maintained in the Spanish officialdom.

Many aristocrats could easily obtain quite good official positions by virtue of their bloodline, and seasoned officials could compete for high positions based on seniority.

However, those who are truly capable rarely achieve a title and official position through their own efforts, and the path for commoners besides emigrating seems to be only through revolution to gain their identity and status like Prime Minister Prim.

The new performance evaluation system for officials completely breaks the original bureaucratic system of Spain, shifting from valuing bloodlines and prestige to valuing individual ability.

From a national perspective, this is certainly a step forward. Only when these officials try their best to create achievements can Spain’s economy and industry quickly advance through their efforts.

If officials from various regions and cities themselves are not enthusiastic about the growth of the economy and industry, how can Spain’s comprehensive national strength progress swiftly?

By linking the progress of the national economy and industry, including some decrees promulgated by the Cabinet Government, to the achievements of these officials, even if not for national development, they will still strive for their personal interests, political achievements, and higher official positions.

Doing things passively versus actively makes a clear difference, and for the current Spain, it urgently needs some more passionate and dynamic young officials to change the officialdom’s landscape.

“Prime Minister, isn’t your proposal too radical?” a legislator in parliament raised objections, clearly dissatisfied with the content of Prime Minister Prim’s proposal: ”

This completely breaks the previous bureaucratic system of Spain. Can I think of it as causing a severe impact on the existing bureaucratic system of Spain and making many officials lose their original jobs?”