Ministry for Foreign Affairs to reform its organisation
Press release 71/2008
4 March, 2008
The Ministerial Management Group of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has decided on the Ministry’s new organisational structure and on the next steps to be taken in reforming the Ministry’s activities and management.
A totally new services area will be established in the Ministry, to handle the tasks of the Legal Department, the Department for Administrative Affairs and the Protocol Department. The goal is to arrange citizens’ services and support services more efficiently than before.
Political coordination of affairs for which the Department for Global Affairs previously bore responsibility will be improved by transferring the Department’s tasks to the Political Departments.
As a result of the decisions, the number of departments will be reduced from twelve to eight. Activities will be reorganised both within and between the departments, which will lead to the merging of units.
These solutions aim at increasing the Ministry’s productivity and efficiency while at the same time striving to find solutions that correspond better to challenges in the operational environment of foreign policy. The reforms also meet the requirements of the Government productivity programme. The changes facilitate the Ministry’s efforts to realise the personnel reductions required by the Government’s decisions by the end of 2011.
The Management Group decided that its next meeting will deal with development of the Ministry’s leadership system and the role of the Under-Secretaries of State. At the same time, the plan for assessment of the Ministry’s internal procedures will be discussed. Development of administrative affairs and the possibility of recruiting an external professional director are also envisaged.
The Ministry also evaluates Finland’s representation through foreign missions abroad. When it is completed, the investigation of the network of foreign missions begun earlier, led by Ambassador Antti Sierla, will supplement the organisational reform.
Additional information: Senior Adviser Jori Arvonen, mobile tel. +358 50 553 6117, and Special Adviser Ossi Martikainen, mobile tel. +358 40 592 6769