Government Office cuts back as focus shifts to defense topics
The Government Office is shifting its focus more toward defense-related activities and is consolidating the innovation team and innovation fund operating under the office. Along with support staff, 5 percent of Government Office employees — seven people in total — will lose their jobs.
The innovation team — known as the "innotiim" — that had been operating under the Government Office previously organized innovation sprints, nudgeathons, experimental design sprints and Sherpa workshops for the public sector. The team consisted of five people.
The Public Sector Innovation Fund, on the other hand, operates using European Union funding, distributing EU money to projects aimed at public sector innovation. This team included six people.
State Secretary Keit Kasemets said that because additional resources were needed for the defense sector and strategic communications, it was necessary to scale back activities elsewhere. As a result, he decided to merge the innovation team and the innovation fund. In addition, there was a need to meet budget reduction targets.
According to Kasemets, he saw room to improve the efficiency of innovation-related initiatives. Training programs and similar activities will continue, but on a smaller scale than before.
"The focus now, during this time of crisis, is to concentrate on the Government Office's core responsibilities — supporting the substantive work of the government, as well as managing crisis preparedness, security and economic matters," Kasemets said.
"This just isn't the time. We can't do everything. We have to be better and stronger at the fundamentals than we've been so far," he added.
Altogether, the restructuring will result in seven job losses — about 5 percent of the Government Office's staff. In addition to members of the innovation team, this includes the advisor on artificial intelligence and several support staff.
Kasemets said that AI-related activities will continue, but at the moment there is no need for a dedicated staff member for that work.
Overall, Kasemets does not consider the changes to be a major reform, but rather a more precise refocusing of the Government Office's priorities.
The government has been heavily criticized in the media for spending money on unnecessary public-sector activities in a recession, while its messaging has rather suggested everyone needs to cut back as times are tough.
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Editor: Huko Aaspõllu, Marcus Turovski
