The Public Service Commission in Fiji has put on hold its voluntary redundancy plan.
According to Fijivillage, the PSC chairman, Josefa Serulagilagi, says it has been told by the interim government that there are no funds to carry out the exercise.
Mr Serulagilagi says an ideal number of public servants would be 21,000 which half the people on the pay roll now.
He says before the 1987 military coup, the number of public servants was just below 20,000.
He says the PSC's aim now is for it to function more systematically and effectively through reforms.
The move comes amid a call by the Fiji Reserve Bank for drastic cuts in imports in view of a huge trade deficit.
