Brazil Plans to Reduce Number of Government Ministries

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – In an effort to reduce government spending and improve the Administration’s cost efficiency, Brazil’s Planning Minister, Nelson Barbosa, announced the government’s plans on Monday, August 24th to reduce the number of ministries in the Rousseff Administration from 39 to 29 in the short-term and then to the target of ten government ministries.

“There are several possible proposals to reach this target. We need to hear all those involved,” said Barbosa at a press conference after a meeting with President Dilma Rousseff to discuss the government’s administration reform. According to the government official the ministries to be closed will be decided by the end of September. “We have not yet defined which ministries or structures will be affected,” he said.

In addition to reducing the number of ministries in the Administration, Barbosa also said the Rousseff Administration would restructure federal agencies, reduce the number of people working in the federal government, review outsourced contracts and sell idle and unused property owned by the federal government. Barbosa stated that the government will review the over 22,000 commissioned positions within the federal government today.

Minister Barbosa would not estimate the savings the government would obtain from these measures, but said the reform was necessary to face the country’s new budget reality.

“With a better working machine, government productivity will increase. It is vital to increase government productivity so that we may obtain monetary and efficiency gains at the end of the process,” he told reporters.