Rinkēvičs said in a press conference after the meeting that "something has gone wrong in the ministries with informing the society and communication".
One example he gave was the debate on the planned rye bread program. The project plans to introduce rye bread to schoolchildren as a traditional product of regional importance. There was a debate in the public about the sense of such a project and the justification for the money, as it was recently revealed that the project would cost EUR 300,000 in its initial stage only.
"We announced the rye bread program, which is not the worst, but we cannot explain it in any way. If you start talking about reducing the size of the public administration, you have to look at how many PR specialists we have who sometimes fail to give good advice to their political and administrative managers," Rinkēvičs said.
He added that perhaps the communication departments in state bodies should be shrunk if they don't function effectively.
The President also mentioned the recent talk for support to cancer patients, which includes an increase in the reimbursement of medicines and the introduction of a Cancer Fund. Rinkēvičs said he would like to see concrete proposals.
Rinkēvičs also stressed that funding needs to be found to improve the system. And, in his view, this should also be sought from internal resources.
