New government system will enable Turkish institutions to speed up decisions, PM says


Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said yesterday that the new adjustment laws in line with the changes made in last year's constitutional referendum would speed up the sluggish bureaucracy.

Speaking at an event one year on from the April 16 constitutional referendum, Yıldırım said that the future changes will lead to a quicker bureaucratic structure. "The president will be at the wheel of the economy and allow bureaucracy to work more quickly. The presidency will do whatever is needed for Turkey's institutions to work more quickly," he asserted.

Yıldırım said that there will not be any excuses in the new system. He added that a system has been designed in which only those who deserve them will get posts. "We are changing the executive system that people are fed up with due to coups and tutelage."

Media also reported yesterday that some posts will be merged or abolished with the new system since the Prime Ministry will be terminated. In the current system, there are different auditing bodies for the Prime Ministry and every other ministry. Reportedly, work is ongoing concerning how the auditing process will be conducted, as some ministries will be merged and bureaucratic structures will be altered. The Türkiye daily report claimed that "the obese state" will vanish after the adjustment laws are made.

Contending that institutions such as the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) and the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB) will be merged under the Foreign Ministry, the report said that the same strategy might be applied to other state institutions to diminish the number of bureaucrats.

Another merger is reportedly to take place for the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) and the general directorate of civil registration and citizens affairs.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also been very vocal concerning the sluggishness of state institutions and bureaucratic channels. Five subcommittees and an upper committee are working to finalize a comprehensive report they will submit to Erdoğan. Restructuring the executive, the personnel regime, local organizations, parliamentary bylaws and other significant issues are being discussed. Recent media reports have also contended that the U.S. and French systems are among the examples that have been looked at for ideas.

The ongoing preparations for the executive presidential system are expected to be ready prior to the 2019 elections. The president previously said that the government and its bureaucracy should be able to function efficiently and that the multi-headed bureaucracy needs to be restructured. New laws will reportedly lessen the complexity of bureaucratic hurdles in the state.