"By creating a 'vacancy bank', it is expected that institutions will keep a closer eye on how many employees are really needed, and over time, the number of positions in the state administration as a whole will be able to be gradually reduced," said a September 23 release.
There is currently a vacancy rate of about 12% in state administration. Some positions have not been filled for more than 12 months. Such positions vacant for more than a year will be listed by the State Chancellery in the "vacancy bank", while institutions will have to exclude them from their lists of positions. The information at the disposal of the State Chancellery shows that approximately 750 to 1,200 long-term vacant positions could be placed in the "vacancy bank".
"Since, in order to meet the needs of the public, new functions must be performed in the state administration from time to time, which accordingly creates the need to hire new employees, the necessary number of positions can be taken from the 'vacancy bank' maintained by the State Chancellery with a government's approval. In this way, the optimization of the state administration continues, as the hiring of employees in existing long-term vacant positions will be limited," said the State Chancellery.
"The new solution 'vacancy bank' is actually an information exchange process between the State Chancellery and the state's direct administrative institutions. Based on the data provided by the institutions, we collect information about the long-term vacant positions, which the institutions must exclude from the job lists. If an institution is unable to adapt the existing structure to new needs, the additional required positions can be obtained from the 'vacancy bank' and in each such case it will not be necessary to analyze all the institutions in turn, looking for where there are vacant positions in the state administration to be transferred", explained Deputy Director of the State Chancellery for state administration Ieva Lībķena.
The creation of a "vacancy bank" by taking long-term vacant positions from the institution should not affect the total amount of funding available to the institutions affected. The financing of the long-term vacant position remains at the disposal of the institution. Funding from long-term vacant positions will be able to be directed to existing employees in order to move towards competitive remuneration, without requiring additional financial resources for these purposes – potentially creating an incentive for smaller teams.
Several exceptions are foreseen, when long-term vacant positions will not be collected in the 'vacancy bank' – the positions of the head of an institution, of soldiers and border guards, and the positions created for a limited period of time to facilitate the implementation of a specific project.
The State Chancellery will suggest the government start implementing the "vacancy bank" as early as December 1 this year, recording the number of long-term vacancies at that moment. After that, it is planned to update the data again once a year.
