Russia To Start Reducing Number Of Civil Servants Starting From 2020 - Finance Ministry

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2019) The Russian authorities in 2020 will start implementing a public administration reform that will result in reductions in number of civil servants and increase in salaries of remained staff, First Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko told Sputnik in an interview.

"Obviously, saving is not the goal of the reform, but free funds will be used to increase salaries of civil servants. If the planned reductions are not carried out, a competitive level of public workers' salaries will not be achieved. Otherwise, we will need to allocate additional funds from the budget in the amount of up to 100 billion rubles [$1.

6 billion] annually," Nesterenko said.

According to the first deputy minister, the reform would be implemented in two phases. During the first stage, staff of central offices of the Federal executive authorities will be reduced by 10 percent, while local bodies would face 5 percent reductions in 2020. In 2021, the Russian authorities plan to increase staff reductions in local bodies to 15 percent.

The second stage envisaged structural changes of the public administration system, which will lead to additional staff reductions, Nesterenko noted.