Deputy prime minister: additional cuts needed at all ministries

Additional cuts in the civil service will affect all government ministries Deputy Prime Minister Karolína Peake has revealed. Speaking to journalists the head of the smallest party in government, LIDEM, said a major cut in funds might be needed at the Culture Ministry while the Ministry for Regional Development might be closed entirely. She stressed what was key was not the closing of ministries per se but a reduction in their agendas. A report compiled by the deputy prime minister will be discussed at the cabinet level; she said in advance she expected to be met with resistance from individual ministries. In June, the government assigned Mrs Peake the task of proposing cuts in areas of the civil service; under the plan, almost 12 billion crowns are to be saved in 2014 and as much as 25 billion crowns one year later. According to the deputy prime minister, the ministries together have only proposed cuts of 1.6 billion crowns.

Author: Jan Velinger