Savings in Public Administration: Which Ministries Are Reducing Their Workforce? 0 15

Due to increased defense spending and strict budget constraints, saving public funds is mentioned as one of the main tasks. Therefore, Latvian Television (LTV) decided to find out what this saving looks like in practice in the ministries, particularly through staff and salary reductions. LTV asked all fourteen ministries to report whether staff reductions are planned for 2026 and how much this would allow them to save.

The picture of reductions is uneven. Actual staff reductions are planned only in some ministries. The largest cuts are in the Ministry of Finance, where more than four hundred specific positions are set to be eliminated. The vast majority of these are in the State Revenue Service. Reductions will also occur in the Ministries of Agriculture and Economy. In other ministries, there will be either small reductions or redistribution of positions.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that positions would be cut in certain embassies, but did not specify how many people would be affected. Meanwhile, in about half of the ministries - six out of fourteen - the staff numbers will not be reduced.

The Ministry of Education and Science did not provide an answer regarding staff reductions. Savings directly related to staff cuts are mainly concentrated in three ministries. In the Ministry of Finance, it exceeds nine million euros, in the Ministry of Agriculture it is more than three million, and in the Ministry of Economy, it is over one million euros. These are the only ministries that clearly stated that these funds were saved specifically through staff reductions.

In other ministries, labor costs are being reduced in other ways. For example, through reorganizations, centralization of accounting, elimination of long-term vacancies, or reduction of bonuses. This means that not all cases are actual layoffs, and the amount of savings in each department also varies significantly. There is no specific overall figure for this year on how much will be saved directly from salaries. However, a decision has been made that from 2027, salary expenses for the entire public administration should be reduced by almost 59 million euros.