Parliament of Moldova approves new structure of government

Chisinau, 21 July /MOLDPRES/ - The Moldovan parliament, at a today’s plenary meeting, approved the new structure of the government. The proposal by Prime Minister Pavel Filip was backed by 54 lawmakers, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.   

The PM said that the list of ministries included nine central public administration authorities, unlike 16 at present. Thus, the new composition of the cabinet includes the Economics and Infrastructure Ministry; Finance Ministry; Justice Ministry; Foreign and European Integration Ministry; Interior Ministry; Defence Ministry; Education, Culture and Research Ministry; Health Labour and Social Protection Ministry; Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Ministry.     

According to the prime minister, out of the nine ministries, five preserve their present, as well as duties. It is about the Justice Ministry, Foreign and European Integration Ministry, Finance Ministry, Interior Ministry and Defence Ministry. The other four aforementioned ministries have at their basis the reason of concentration of the sectors in charge into a single ministry, taking into account the correlation of policies, compatibility in activity, complementary functionality, common goals and resources and cutting the administrative costs.    

Thus, the Economics Ministry will take over the activity fields from the Transport and Roads Infrastructure Ministry and from the Information Technology and Communications Ministry, as well as the sector of constructions from the Regional Development and Constructions Ministry, with the change of the name into the Economics and Infrastructure Ministry.

The Culture Ministry will take over the activity fields from the Education Ministry, from the Youth and Sport Ministry and the research sphere from the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, with the change of the name into the Education, Culture and Research Ministry. 

The Labour, Social Protection and Family Ministry will take over the activity sectors from the Health Ministry, with the change of the name into Health, Labour and Social Protection Ministry. The Regional Development and Constructions Ministry will take over the activity fields from the Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry and from the Environment Ministry, with the change of the name into the Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Ministry. 

As for the reduction of the number of civil servants working in ministries, Pavel Filip said that 1,808 positions are presently established in the 16 ministries, of which 1,489 are actually held and 319 are vacant. As a result of the remodeling of the government’s architecture, the number of offices is planned to be cut by 30 per cent, i.e by 542 units, of which only 223 are actually held.     

According to the draft, the government, in a three-month period, will reorganize the structure of the central specialty bodies of the public administration and will propose to bring the legislation in line with the new structure.