Ecuador’s President eliminates ministries and fires 5,000 civil servants

Ecuador.- The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, decreed the reduction of the Government from 20 to 14 ministries, and from 9 to 3 secretariats, and additionally the dismissal of 5,000 public officials from various institutions of the Executive and the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS), as announced by the government spokeswoman, Carolina Jaramillo. “The dismissals have objectives that are based on efficiency criteria. The national government has set as a goal to have an efficient State, which really provides public services for citizens, of quality,” said Jaramillo, who added that the departures respond to a process of analysis that each public institution has done and not to political criteria. The spokeswoman pointed out that with the mergers of ministries, the number of state portfolios is reduced by 41% and clarified that the layoffs do not include doctors, nursing staff, teachers, police officers, military personnel, or people from vulnerable groups.

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These cuts are made within the framework of the goals set by Noboa to reduce the state deficit and meet the targets of the credit program that his administration signed last year with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), amounting to 5,000 million dollars.

Merger of ministries and secretariats

This measure mainly contemplates the merger of the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing and the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works; that the Ministries of Culture and Sports and the Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation move to the Ministry of Education; that the Ministry of Women and Human Rights merges with the Ministry of Government, and that the Ministry of Environment goes to the Ministry of Energy and Mines. In addition, the Ministry of Tourism will merge with the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries and the Vice Ministry of Aquaculture and Fisheries will go to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, among other changes. In the realm of security, Noboa has also ordered that the National Service for Comprehensive Care for Adults Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the state institution that manages prisons, and the Integrated Security Service ECU-911, which previously reported directly to the Presidency, now report to the Ministry of the Interior. The spokeswoman pointed out that in the coming days, more details will be announced on how the mergers between the State portfolios will be, as some will become vice ministries and others “will have other figures”.