The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development and EU Funds Management, Branko Grcic, said on Monday that the purpose of planned retirement of public-sector employees was to streamline and improve public administration.
"Our goal is not to lay off people but to increase the efficiency of the public sector," Grcic said while responding to questions from the press before a conference on support for the effective implementation of a business related infrastructure grant scheme, which his ministry organised to mark the completion of a technical assistance project under the EU pre-accession programme IPA.
He admitted that this would further increase the already large number of retired people in Croatia, but stressed that it would be less of a burden on the budget than the gross amount of wages.
