Commissions working on adjustment laws accelerated work to shape the executive body as a comprehensive report is expected to be submitted to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) chairman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in six months at the latest.
According to a report in the Türkiye daily yesterday, AK Party commissions have started to review all laws in regard to auditing the executive body, bureaucratic structure and personnel regime. In this respect, working groups have been created to make adjustment laws. Working groups and commissions will finalize their work in the upcoming six months in line with Erdoğan's instructions.
The issue of how the government will be audited in the new executive system has been a hot topic in the commissions. In the current system, there are different auditing bodies for the Prime Ministry and each 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.
According to AK Party sources cited in the report, auditing bodies will be merged under one roof, which has been the most favorable solution in the commissions.
The AK Party has discussed waiting until after the 2019 elections to change all laws concerning the personnel regime in the state because regulations will not be ready in the coming six months. However, the whole bureaucratic structure will probably be changed prior to 2019.
New laws will reportedly diminish the complexity of bureaucratic hurdles in the state. As Erdoğan has been pointing to the issue of bureaucratic sluggishness and oligarchy, restructuring public administrations will be one of the main focuses of the adjustment laws.
"We aim to establish a simpler and better functioning public administration. Bureaucracy tends to grow. We need to restrict that and maintain our efforts in this line," Cevdet Yılmaz, head of the committee for restructuring recently told the media.
In the executive presidential system, the presidential secretary general or one of the presidential aides will take on the responsibilities of that post with the removal of the undersecretariat of the Prime Ministry. Another formula being discussed involves three presidential aides serving as top bureaucrats in defense-security, public administration and economy.
As the Prime Ministry will be wholly removed in the new governing system, its authorities will be transferred to the presidency. It has been discussed that the authorities might be shared by some offices to be formed in the presidency in a system similar to that in the U.S. The decisions and opinions of these specialized offices, such as the office for agriculture and the office for economy, would play significant roles in shaping government policies. The adjustment laws will be presented to Parliament when finished.