Bulgarian government to axe 30,000 civil servants

Bulgaria's future government has announced plans to to streamline the state administration. Fifteen percent of the approximately 250,000 civil servants in Bulgaria are to be dismissed by the end of 2022, said Assen Vasilev, the finance minister designate, in an interview with TV channel bTV. The national press welcomes the initiative but doubts it can be fully implemented.

Open/close all quotes
Duma (BG) /

Too many, inefficient and overpaid

Duma supports the plans:

“The issue is sensitive, but one thing is clear: the state administration must be modernised and depoliticised. It is an open secret that the numerous administrative structures that emerged during the last decade under [Borisov's ruling party] Gerb were there to feed party friends and crack down on party enemies. ... But the number of civil servants is less irritating than the low efficiency of their work and the constant increase in their salaries. Even the finance minister of Borisov's first government, Simeon Dyankov, wanted to dismiss civil servants, but his administrative reform never materialised. Hopefully it will work out this time round.”

Webcafé (BG) /

Bureaucracy is like a hydra

Many have tried to streamline state administrations before, but failed, mocks Webcafé:

“All over the world, state administrations are bloated, slow, conservative, and opposed to any change - and usually deserve to be 'trimmed'. So it's common practice for new governments to declare that they will boldly start to dismantle this oblivious bureaucracy. Yet in most cases the state administration somehow magically continues to grow because it is a living, thinking and strictly hierarchical organism which, like the mythical hydra, grows two new heads as soon as you cut one off.”