Administrative reform. How many positions will be cut from the ministries and who is an exception

The draft Ordinance on administrative reform provides for the reduction of personnel expenses in ministries and other subordinate institutions and public authorities for a limited period of six months.

Staff costs will be cut by 10%. Archive photo

According to the draft, it is regulated the reduction by 10% of personnel expenses within the ministries, other specialized bodies of the central public administration under the Government and the ministries, institutions subordinate to the ministries, within other institutions and public authorities, financed from the budgets provided for in art. 1 paragraph (2) from Law no. 500/2002 on public finances, with subsequent amendments and additions, as well as from other specialized bodies of the public administration, from autonomous administrative authorities, from other institutions, regardless of their financing method, centralized on each main credit orderer.

The measures to reduce personnel expenses are approved and applied until July 1, 2026, and the implementation to achieve the objectives regarding the reduction of personnel expenses is done between July 1 and December 31, 2026.
At the same time, in the case of the main credit orderers who have already reduced personnel expenses in 2025 (compared to 2024), the 10% reduction is adjusted accordingly as the difference between the 10% percentage and the percentage of savings actually achieved in 2025.

Exception areas

The project also provides for a series of exceptions related to the limitation of personnel expenses, especially in the field of Defense, Education and Health.

Considering the fact that in 2025 measures were adopted to reduce operating expenses, the impact of which, in 2026 and the following years, leads to savings and taking into account the vulnerabilities and challenges in the fields of health, education, defense, public order and national security, as well as in the field of culture, the following institutions were exempted: state education institutions, public hospitals and public ambulance services, public institutions in the field of culture under the subordination or coordination of central public administration authorities, as well as public institutions from the “Defence, public order and national security” occupational family.