The reorganization was approved today by the Council of Ministers and announced by the Minister of State Reform, Gonçalo Matias, following the meeting.
In this new structure, the position of Director of Public Administration Information Systems and Technologies will be created, a role the government compares to that of a Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
“This is a restructuring of utmost relevance” that allows “the creation of a new position not existing in Portugal,” the minister stated during a press conference, emphasizing that other technologically advanced countries already have such a role, such as Estonia.
The individual who will occupy the position is yet to be identified. The leader will be selected through a competitive process, confirmed Gonçalo Matias, noting that this will occur through “competitive procedures.”
Questioned on when ARTE will be established, the minister said the change will happen “immediately,” and that, for the time being, until the future director is found, leadership functions will be performed by the current AMA management.
Besides the establishment of ARTE, the Council of Ministers approved the “guiding principles” of state reform, which will involve the restructuring of ministry structures and a process of legislative and administrative simplification aimed at facilitating the interaction between citizens and various state departments, the minister noted.
One of the changes the executive wants to implement involves reducing decision deadlines and eliminating “unnecessary opinions,” making the state “more effective and efficient,” he stated.
The reform, he explained, “will operate on two levels.” The first involves the reform of ministry structures to examine which entities may be merged. The first example is the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation, whose structural reform was approved today, reducing the number of entities from 18 to seven and cutting the number of senior leaders from 45 to 27.
The government plans to do the same “ministry by ministry,” expecting this redefinition to take place by the end of the first half of 2026, announced the Minister of State Reform.
A second level of the reform will involve “the revision of administrative procedures,” which will require examining each entity to conduct an “exhaustive” review of decision times and collaborating with ministries to redesign procedures, the minister explained.
In this process, the government intends to use technology to advance administrative simplification, he said.
The simplification package also envisages legislative simplification, including the revision of the Administrative Procedure Code, the Public Procurement Code, the simplification of corporate acts, and the revision of commercial, industrial, and urban licensing.
The changes the government intends to implement were not detailed.
Gonçalo Matias stated that some of the changes will involve submitting legislative proposals to parliament or legislative authorizations.
