Government planning to cut ministry staff by 10 percent

The government will return to a proposal to cut the number of jobs at ministries by 10 percent within the next few weeks, ANO deputy leader and Industry and Trade Minister Karel Havlíček said on Czech Television. He said the cuts should not be made in one go, but phased out over the course of next year.

Havlíček said the government wants to economize, but stressed that the measures should not affect efficient civil servants or those who are committed to working in public administration.

According to Havlíček, an efficient way to reduce staff numbers is to merge organizations. He cited the recent merger of the CzechInvest and CzechTrade agencies as an example, which resulted in around 80 jobs being cut.