Less administration, more troops; duplication will be eliminated, the structure of the troops will not be changed.
On June 15, Defence Minister Klaudia Tanner ordered a change to the structure of the central office of the Ministry of Defense. “After countless discussions with the soldiers and based on the government program, I have tasked the Chief of Staff and my Secretary General with creating a sustainable structure for the Ministry of Defence. I have defined the following four points as the cornerstones of the elaborations: 1. the troops remain unaffected and everyone retains their employment, 2. the Armed Forces must be able to live its leadership principles again – for example the unity of command – and duplications must be eliminated, 3. the basis of every consideration should be the principle: “Less administration, more troops” and 4. the aim is to develop the central office of the Ministry of Defence from a sluggish administrative organization into a fast, agile service and leadership organization. I would like to thank everyone who has worked so intensively on this project over the past few months!” In concrete terms, the changes to the structure are as follows: Five sections (including General Staff level) will become three Directorates General (Presidential Directorate, Directorate General for Defense Policy and Directorate General for National Defense). The core competence “Military National Defense” will be represented in the Central Office by the Chief of the General Staff, who will also act as Commander of the Directorate General for National Defense. In future, the Chief of General Staff, as part of the Central Office and the Armed Forces, will lead the areas of Operations, Air Force, Training, Logistics Procurement, ICT and Cyber, Infrastructure, Military Healthcare and Capability and Policy Planning. The Director General for Defense Policy is responsible for the areas of law, defense policy, international relations and communication. The Presidential Directorate is responsible for Human Resources and Administrative Affairs. “The force has been restructured every three to five years in recent years, but the reforms have never been completed. This harms every organization, every company and also the armed forces. However, the root of the problem, the top-heaviness, has never been seriously addressed. With this further development of the central office and the top military leadership, this is now being changed. For the first time, this is a reform for the troops and not of the troops,” said the Minister of Defense. Chief of General Staff Robert Brieger: “The forthcoming organizational adjustment of the Ministry of Defence will result in a significant streamlining of the central office, while at the same time bringing together the key task bearers for the command of the Armed Forces under the Chief of the General Staff. This will make the command and control process more dynamic, but will require a high degree of cooperation and autonomous action on the part of the task bearers in line with the overall objective.” Lieutenant General Franz Reißner, Commander of the Armed Forces: “Despite drastic changes, military principles will be retained that are indispensable for the fulfillment of military tasks, especially in an international context.
The ‘interoperability’ and comparability with command structures of partner nations within the framework of the CSDP remain in place.” “This epoch-making organizational change initiates a significant streamlining of the administration, strengthens the troops, clearly assigns responsibilities from the strategic to the tactical level under the principle of ‘unity of command’ and thus enables an even more effective and efficient deployment of the air forces,” says Brigadier Gerfried Promberger, Commander of Airspace Surveillance. Major General Hans Hamberger, Head of Auditing at the BMLV: “The age structure of the personnel and its consequences will present the BMLV with major challenges in the near future. The intended further development of the central office, its partial merger with the upper military command of the Federal Armed Forces and the clear organizational separation of military and general government tasks means that a great opportunity to improve the status quo must be seized. Success now requires a clear focus on the goal and the solution of details with a sure instinct.” Ministerial Councillor Walter Hirsch, fcg-GÖD Chairman of the GÖD Federal Armed Forces Union: “The employer has presented an organizational change that is certainly worthy of note. Many of the intended measures represent organizational improvements and meet the key demands of the employee representatives. For example, the organization of the ministry and the armed forces are to be separated again, the ministry is to become a ministry again and the armed forces are to become the armed forces again. The organization should once again be based primarily on professional aspects. There should be clear competencies and clear responsibilities. This should strengthen the specialist areas of aviation, ICT & cyber and medical services. The organizational ‘fragmentation’ of personnel administration is to be reversed and budget administration is finally to be returned to the role of a central ministerial budget administration; ultimately, the supreme military organization is to be clearly strengthened and the ‘first soldier of the armed forces’ is to actually be represented in the armed forces again. The employer intends to implement many of the demands of the employee representatives. It is now up to the employer to implement the proposed organizational change without disadvantages for the employees concerned. And it is up to us as employee representatives to ensure that the implementation of this organizational adjustment does not result in any deterioration for our employees.” Brigadier Erich Cibulka, President of the Officers’ Association: “Unity of command is an important management principle. The elimination of duplication at the highest political and military levels is therefore to be welcomed. The focus must be on increasing operational capability (‘jointness’) and not on reducing costs.
However, if the measures can free up resources, then these should benefit the troops (for example by shifting posts), as they have long borne the burden of numerous deployments at home and abroad while maintaining the same level of training responsibility.” “As President of the Austrian Non-Commissioned Officers’ Association and a professional non-commissioned officer, I would like to thank our Federal Minister for her great commitment. This comprehensive reform will significantly strengthen the troops and streamline the administration at the same time. As the heart, hand and soul of the army, the guarantee of NCO jobs is particularly important to us. This has created an essential prerequisite for being able to provide rapid and efficient support during operations,” says Vice-Lieutenant Markus Auinger, President of the Austrian Non-Commissioned Officers’ Association.
