Government’s Office to scrap 1 in 5 positions

“The plan is to launch the new structure of the government’s office on July 18 of 2017. The number of positions will drop from 210 to 170, i.e., the number will decline by about 20 percent (40 positions),” reads the press release.

Calculations suggest the new scheme will allow saving about 65,000 euros in salaries and 12,000 euros in workplace maintenance (workstation equipment, computers, electricity, heating and other related costs) per month. In a year, the restructuring will allow saving about 924,000 euros.

However, the government will have to pay severance to the employees who will be made redundant.

“There are busy and there are free people, I believe the main thing here is that this is not a reform to reduce the headcount, this is restructuring of what the office does. Therefore, we will from now on focus on results, project management, strategic intelligence, we will have analysis-based decisions, consequently, the functions will change considerably (…). We will employ people in charge of implementing reforms (…), project managers will work with all ministries, experts, independent people to translate the reforms into reality,” Governmental Chancellor Milda Dargužaitė said.

According to the government’s press release, the current performance of the government’s office is inefficient, as many functions overlap and are focused on the process rather than the result, therefore, proper quality of services cannot be ensured, there is no change management system.

“After completing structural changes in the remaining ministries, we believe the government’s office will be capable of shrinking further,” Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis told journalists on Monday.

After taking office at the end of 2016, the Skvernelis-led government listed restructuring of the public sector as one of its priorities. When appointing Dargužaitė, former chief of the foreign investment promotion agency Invest Lithuania, as the governmental chancellor last December, the prime minister pledged changes in the government’s office.