State Chancellery Is Set to Increase Its Staff Numbers: 18 Million Lei at Cost

Despite the current hiring freeze, 56 new posts are to be created within the State Chancellery. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting on 18 March. According to the decree, the staff will increase from 323 to 379 people. The draft states that the specialists will work in the central administration of the Chancellery and will be responsible for coordinating the government’s work in the process of the EU accession, reports realitatea.md. The European Integration Bureau will be reinforced with 25 staff members, including two state secretaries. A post of State Secretary for Reintegration will also be created. Ten staff members will be assigned to the Office for the Implementation of the Reform Agenda, three to the Center for Legislative Harmonization, seven to the Directorate for the Coordination of External Aid and European Funds, one to the Directorate for Relations with Parliament and Inter-ministerial Coordination on International Sanctions, and nine to the Support Directorate. Salaries for the new staff from January to December will cost around 15.8 million lei. Business travel will cost the state approximately 2.5 million lei. It should be recalled that at the end of last year, the government extended the moratorium on vacant posts, originally set to expire on 30 November 2025, until 31 December 2026. The measure applies to approximately 17,000 positions and does not affect posts for which a competition had already been announced at the time the decree came into force. For autonomous and local authorities, the decision is of a recommendatory nature. Finance Minister Andrian Gavrilita previously stated that vacant posts could be abolished so that the measure would not be applied again.