As Latvia forms a new government, the Foreign Investors’ Council in Latvia (FICIL) is launching its Institutions Workstream 2026–2027, led by Zlata Elksniņa-Zaščirinska, FICIL Innovation, Institutions & Development Work Group leader. It is aimed at turning public-administration reform from a long-standing ambition into a practical and measurable programme of change.
The problem is well known
Excessive bureaucracy, fragmented IT systems, duplicated support functions and weak performance management slow decision-making, increase costs and make public services less efficient.
Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs has repeatedly identified bureaucracy and the inefficient use of state resources as key obstacles. Addressing them, however, requires more than individual improvements. It requires clear political ownership, a coordinated reform approach and, where necessary, changes to hundreds of laws and regulations.
The window is now
FICIL believes the new government has an opportunity to bring several critical reforms together under one management approach: centralising shared services, introducing systematic cost and process management, and linking public spending to measurable results.
The principle is simple: ministries should focus on policy-making and oversight, while support functions that do not need to be performed separately by each institution should be centralised, standardised and technology-enabled. At the same time, budget decisions should be increasingly linked to the results that public institutions are expected to deliver.
“Public administration needs a change leader, a clear mandate and measurable results. We need to connect shared services, cost and process management, and budget decisions so that we can answer one fundamental question: what does society get for every euro spent? The new government has a unique opportunity to give this reform a clear mandate, establish measurable targets and demand results. The choice is whether Latvia uses this opportunity to become more efficient and competitive, or allows reform to be delayed once again,” said Zlata Elksniņa-Zaščirinska, FICIL Innovation, Institutions & Development Work Group leader.
Foundations are already in place
Latvia has already taken steps towards a more efficient public administration. The State Shared Service Centre (SSC)now serves 109 institutions, compared with 31 in January 2026, with a goal of covering 80% of public-administration employees by the end of the year. The introduction of mandatory structured e-invoicing is another step towards reducing manual processes and increasing the use of digital solutions.
These developments demonstrate that change is possible. The next step is to scale it into a more systematic public-administration reform.
FICIL Policy Labs: from ideas to a practical roadmap
Between October 2026 and February 2027, FICIL will organise four Policy Labs – a series of working meetings bringing together the Ministry of Finance, the State Treasury, the State Chancellery, the State Administration School, the State Digital Development Agency, FICIL members and external experts.
The aim is to develop a concrete roadmap for three areas of reform:
- Centralisation of public functions – identifying functions that can be performed more efficiently through shared services rather than separately by individual institutions;
- Expenditure management – moving beyond recording expenditure towards systematic analysis and management of the costs of public administration;
- Performance-based budgeting – strengthening the link between public funding and measurable outcomes.
The results of the Policy Labs will be presented to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, with the aim of supporting the new government in defining concrete priorities and next steps.
Where FICIL sees the next opportunities
FICIL sees several immediate opportunities to build on the reforms already underway:
- Expand shared services to areas such as HR support, onboarding, joint procurement, contract administration and IT support;
- Use centralised data for cross-ministry cost analysis, supported by a professional analytical team within the SSC and a clear mandate for the State Chancellery to request comparable data and establish common standards;
- Standardise and centrally manage areas such as the state vehicle fleet, electricity consumption, office space, printing, outsourcing and software licences;
- Link budgets to measurable results, so that funding decisions can answer practical questions: How much shorter will the queue be? How much faster will decisions be made? What service will citizens receive for the additional euro spent?
A window that should not be missed
Public-administration reform is ultimately about making the state work better for citizens, businesses and the people who work in public administration.
FICIL calls on the new government to use the current window of opportunity to give public-administration reform clear political ownership, measurable targets and a defined implementation roadmap. The Policy Labs will provide a practical platform for developing these solutions and translating them into concrete recommendations for government.