The number of officials at ministries and offices will decrease by 2,636, beginning in January, as part of what is known as systematization. By 2024, the state will have over 73,000 officials. Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) made the announcement on Wednesday after a government meeting. Before the elections, however, the Together coalition promised a 13% slimming down.
“We are drastically reducing the number of officials and fulfilling the promise that the state should function more effectively. We have abolished 2,636 official positions. This means a decrease of 3.5 percent,” the Prime Minister announced after the government meeting. Of this, 2,522 positions are under the Civil Service Act, and 114 jobs are according to the Labour Code. The savings should amount to 290 million crowns.
By 2024, after the government-approved systematization, 73,232 officials will work for the state, Fiala explained on Wednesday. “Since our inception, with this systematization, we have reduced the number of official positions by 4.5 percent. We fulfill our promises, make the state more efficient, and reduce the number of officials,” added the Prime Minister.
According to him, this is the most significant reduction in the number of officials since the beginning of the Civil Service Act in 2015. Fiala recalled that five years ago, during the era of Andrej Babiš’s (ANO) rule, the state had 5,300 more officials.
Just at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the number of officials will decrease year-on-year by 1,812, according to Deputy Prime Minister and head of this department Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL).
On the other hand, at the Ministry of Culture, the number of positions will decrease by eight or nine, according to the head of the department, Martin Baxa (ODS), which will involve a combination of abolishing unoccupied tabular positions, partial reorganization, and layoffs.