The Research On Operating Cost Of Chinese Civil Service Examination

The system of civil service examination is the core of China’s public servicesystem. The examination for admission is the entrance of public service, which is alsoone of the most important way to recruit public servants. In recent years，thegovernment absorbs a great number of outstanding talents through the civil serviceexam，optimizing the structure of the civil servants，laying solid foundation forestablishing an administrative system featuring high efficiency, coordinated operationand standardized behaviors. To select outstanding talents, relevant laws andregulations must be strictly adopted, involving series of rules and procedures, socialpublic resources such as manpower, finance and substance, which means certain costis definitely needed. Recruiting civil service is a specific administrative act, whichemploys social resources and public finance. Therefore it is necessary to consideradequately operating cost when studying and formulating from recruiting system todetailed implementary practice, especially in the choice of recruiting objectives,scales, methods, scopes and frequency, scientific verification and careful decision is amust to make sure effective input brings maximum or optimum benefit. Otherwise，itis easy to cause an enormous waste of social capital and wealth..The article starts from establishing the civil service system, draws on thetheoretical study and practical achievement of Chinese and foreign experts, scholarsand governmental organizations, states the system of civil service examination andtheoretical problems of operating cost from the angle of cost。Based on the2009-2011civil service examinations of Haizhu District of Guangzhou, it points out that someobjective and subjective reasons lead to the over high cost of civil serviceexamination in China by referring to empirical investigation and research analysis.For example, there is a lack of budget commitment mechanism with independentexamining body and single usage of test scores and results. In terms of system, whenorganizing the civil service examination, the organizing body focuses on the strict andprecise procedures while neglecting the cost with the lack of cost consciousness. Interms of conception, some candidates pay a lot of money to build their own imagewhile losing the opportunity for other jobs and development. In terms of procedures,the whole exam takes a long time, lacks optimum procedures for admission with many links. All of these reasons make the operating cost of civil service examinationhigh. Concerning the existing problems, the candidates should be instructed to keepthe “civil service” in perspectives, the employment channel widened, the employmentpressure alleviated, the security system balanced, the employment direction adjustedto control the number of candidates and lower the overall cost in a proper way.Furthermore, the problems in system, conception and procedures should be solved.for instance, to reduce the overall cost, the budgeting mechanism for recruiting can beestablished, the advanced management methods adopted. To decrease the cost ofrecruiting organization, the resources can be integrated to gain adequate economy ofscale. The executive staff should build up the sense of cost, play an active part inreforming the exam procedures to improve the working efficiency. The governmentshould increase input to optimize the procedures to ease the financial burden ofcandidates. The qualifications for candidates should be set up in a scientific way tomake it clearer and more detailed as to guide the number of candidates. The techniqueof organizing should be improved to solve the problems concerning civil serviceexamination in terms of system, conception and procedures.