Ministry reduction promised that no civilian staff would be fired

Vetevendosje Deputy Chairman Besnik Bislimi says there will be reshuffle of ministries, but rules out the possibility that there will be layoffs due to this reshuffle.

Bislimi: There's re-organizing, there's no more work-outs due to reorganization.

“The reorganization also means staff reorganization, for example, if three ministries get together they can no longer be able to post three permanent secretaries, they can no longer follow three legal departments, it means there are post-organizations, there are no further evacuations due to reorganization. If there are layoffs, then there are only illegal appointments, if an official is employed without respecting the competition procedures, then normal ones we will not respect that. However, if there is a reorganization and a need for relocation, alternatives will be found. For example, we've stated that we're going to multiply the number of job inspectors, if there's no need for an official department, they're going to be given the opportunity to go to the labor inspectorate department, so there's going to be space, but civil staff has no reason to be afraid of these changes”, Bislim said.

He says this consolidation has the only goal of increasing efficiency and reducing expenditures at the ministerial level.

The reduction in the number of ministries is seen by Jeton Mehmeti from the GAP Institute, which says it is seen as a commitment by LVV and LDK to have a government with fewer ministries, which, according to him, will affect the state budget savings.

A research that GAP has done reportedly that with the reduction in the number of state budget ministries will save 15.5m euros.

Mehmeti does not see the restructuring of civilian staff problematic after the reshuffle of ministries takes place.

Mehmeti: Inside them we would have a civil staff reshuffle

A merger in 12 ministries out of 21 right now, only for the salaries of these high persons would some 12m euros be spared. Considering other costs somewhere within a government mandate, we would have a savings of 15.5m euros. This in a political way, while in terms of civil servants we haven't calculated their wages because we believe that with political will, even civil servants' positions would be reoriented and a way of going into the new ministries. We don't see this very problematic because with a government decision, with a government coalition agreement we would have fewer ministries and then within them we would have a reshuffle of civilian staff, which doesn't mean they would have to leave work”, he says.

He says there should be no panic among civil servants that reducing ministries will also lead to layoffs.

Mehmeti: They enjoy the right to be part of the civil service

I don't think we should have a panic because with the ministers being cut out of work, because this is very difficult because they enjoy the right to be part of the civil service, but I believe that after they are reformed which ministries will go where the position of the people working within those ministries will be clarified. I believe that only the political positions that would have to be removed on the occasion of joining some ministries would be positions that would be exhausted, while other positions within the staff normally, some would have to die to not have two similar ones, but those working within them do not mean they should leave work. Rather, they could be settled in any other position within the new ministry in this case”, he says.

Even Artan Demhay from the organisation Arise, reducing the number of ministries is considered good news, but says the challenge remains the civil staff of these ministries.

He says that if the transport of all staff from two ministries to one should happen, a charge would be created, but which points out that the staff departure is not possible.

Demhaya: The main challenge in uniting these ministries would be the matter of civil servants

I think that the main challenge in uniting these ministries is to be the issue of civil servants, each of these ministries has a certain number of civil servants and now with the joining of two and three ministries in one ministry, it's easy to have one minister and to have political staff, but what happens to civilian servants who have been in other ministries. Will they be completely transported if they are completely carried? It would be a huge burden of that ministry. It's not even possible to get people out of work because they have contracts with the government and they can then sue the government. This may also be a financial burden then to the government and such things. But the challenge has to be to civil servants, the current people working through these ministries how they have to settle down in that ministry when they get together”, he says.

The Vetevendosje movement and the Democratic League of Kosovo are continuing meetings for harmonisation of the governing programme, while agreeing that the number of ministries to be reduced to 12, the number of deputy ministers will be from 2 to each ministry and the number of political advisers has been promised.

We remember that the past government led by Ramush Haradinaj has had the largest number of ministries, with more than 80 deputy ministers.