The government has approved the “guiding lines” for state reform, which will involve reorganization and transformation of the ministries and a legislative and administrative simplification process.
This reform will take place on two levels. The first concerns the restructuring of ministries, with the government anticipating completion “by the end of the first half of next year.”
However, “it is possible to bring this timeline forward,” stated Gonçalo Matias, citing the example of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation, which initiated the process and has already accelerated its schedule.
Regarding the second level, involving legislative simplification processes, the Minister of State Reform indicated that the government would start presenting measures “from September,” either as legislative proposals or as “proposals for legislative authorization” requiring parliamentary approval.
These measures include the revision of the Administrative Procedure Code, the Public Procurement Code, the simplification of corporate acts, the review of commercial, industrial, and urban licensing, and measures aimed at the “organization and functioning of the Court of Auditors.”
Gonçalo Matias noted that “the first steps” of this reform were taken “in some cases” by the previous AD government, but the current goal is to “give a new impetus.”
The reform aims to “simplify the lives of citizens and companies,” enhancing the country’s “economic competitiveness” and “investment attraction,” as well as improving the relationship between citizens, companies, and the state.
The organizational reform of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation will reduce the number of entities from 18 to seven and decrease the number of senior managers from 45 to 27.
The government intends to apply the same changes “ministry by ministry,” added the Deputy Minister for State Reform.
When asked about potential savings from this reform, the Minister of Education, Science, and Innovation emphasized that the goal “is not to generate savings.”
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister for State Reform stated that “the main and most important savings are in time and resources,” highlighting the “shortening of deadlines and predictability of decisions.”
“This involves reviewing processes one by one, entity by entity. This means reforming the state from within. It’s not about collapsing the state, as that’s not possible. It’s not about letting the state rest, as that’s not possible. It’s about reforming it from within, entity by entity,” he concluded.
