Small is beautiful

Manama

Bahrain will soon see  less numbers of ministries, as part of the Royal Directives to shrink the existing Cabinet, in order to reduce Government expenditures and deal with the existing financial and economic challenges, it was announced.

This was confirmed during a meeting held yesterday between His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, in the presence of Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

In the meeting, the leadership discussed restructuring governmental departments by merging some ministries and reducing the number of governmental authorities. The measures are being taken to ensure the reduction of public expenditure wherever possible and maintain  requisite financial stability and interests of the nation and citizens.

As reported earlier, HM the King directed on Thursday to form a smaller Cabinet, to promptly solve the existing financial and economic challenges of the country, in consultation with the Prime Minister.

This followed the submission of a report to HM the King by the Crown Prince on Kingdom’s current financial situations, affected by the drop in oil prices and other obligations. 

Information Affairs Minister and Government Official Spokesperson Isa bin Abdulrahman Al Hammadi confirmed on Friday “the new formation of the Cabinet will sure see fewer ministers.” However, the minister didn’t specify the timeframe of announcing the new Cabinet.

In another development, our sister newspaper Al Ayam reported that intensified meetings were being held by the Government during the past few days to discuss the final formation of the new Cabinet.

The report also announced that the new formation is in its final stages now and that it’s almost certain that the merging process would include service ministries, which are directly related to citizens, adding that the step aims at “reducing bureaucracy in Government work.”

Meanwhile, social media users circulated document, which is believed to be a leaked list of the new cabinet formation, showing fewer ministries and authorities. No official confirmation was available in this.