RIYADH: As many as 9,572 government employees (male and female) left their jobs last year including 51 at the ministerial level, according to a government report.

According to the report released on Monday,1,735 officials opted for early retirement. This included 19 employees at the rank of minister, four employees at the excellent rank, 14 employees in rank 15, in addition to 14 in the 14th rank, the report said.

This disclosure comes during the signing of a cooperation deal by Civil Service Minister Khaled bin Abdullah Al-Araj with Ahmed bin Abdullah Al-Shuaibi, head of the Institute of Public Administration, under the newly formed King Salman Program for Human Resources Development.

Under the agreement, staff at the Ministries of Transport, Agriculture, Culture and Information, Foreign Affairs, Justice and Social Affairs will take up relevant trainings.

The program seeks to achieve a number of objectives, among them to raise the quality of government employee performance, productivity at work, and improving the work environment.

It also seeks to upgrade policies and procedures by application of the concept of human resources, and the preparation and creating leaders.