Gov't ministries must cut costs

The Finance Ministry is sending out tailored proposals to each of the government ministries, outlining where and how each one should cut its spending to help reduce the overall public deficit. The coalition government's goal is to reduce planned expenditures this year by 28.2 billion Kč ($1.4 billion), to a total of 873.6 billion Kč for the year.

The money won't be culled from social benefits or mandatory expenditures. Instead, the majority of it will come from 14 ministries, which will have to slash operating budgets 2.5 percent to save a total of 10.2 billion Kč.

Other state-financed organizations will have to cut a total of 1.8 billion Kč from their budgets, including the President's Office with a 9 million Kč cut, the Constitutional Court with a 3.8 million Kč cut and the Czech Academy of Sciences with a 128.7 million Kč cut. The Education Ministry will deliver the biggest savings of 3.2 billion Kč, followed by the Transport Ministry with 1.5 billion Kč and the Agriculture Ministry with 1.2 billion Kč.

The Education Ministry has already responded to the proposal, with Education Minister Josef Dobeš of the Public Affairs party (VV) announcing his party would consider using its right to veto if the cuts affected teachers' pay, he said July 24 on Czech Television.

"I'm bound by mandatory expenditures," he said. "For me, the limit is the infringement upon teachers' pay. In such case, we would apply our right to veto."

Dobeš had ordered an analysis on the impact of the 3 billion Kč cut on the education system and said he would be reviewing it after its completion July 27. The minister nevertheless agreed the government needs to cut costs and save money, but added he believes his ministry will be able to save money without affecting teachers' pay.

After elections but before the coalition government was appointed, VV negotiated for 2 billion Kč to be transferred from the Defense Ministry to the Education Ministry in order to increase teachers' pay, improving it to at least 20,000 Kč per month. The national monthly average wage is 23,000 Kč.

The Justice Ministry is also outlining measures to cut its 500 million Kč from the budget. The ministry plans to raise court fees, sell property and reduce pay for state defense lawyers. Court fees have not been raised in 10 years, Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil said on a television debate July 24. "The fees are really relatively low in our country," he said. "Unfortunately, we'll also considerably reduce the money the state pays to defense lawyers."

Claire Compton can be reached at
ccompton@praguepost.com