Government reinforces external network with more 89 workers by year end
The Government will strengthen the diplomatic and consular network by December 31, with 89 more workers, along with the modernization and technological training of consular services, which in 2017 exceeded two million acts.
According to the Portuguese State Secretary for the Portuguese Communities, José Luís Carneiro, “until the end of this year, when 116 workers were authorized to work for embassies and consulates,” contests for some 89 places are concluded “.
“The strengthening of human resources has been a constant feature of this 2015/2016 period when the Government opened a competition for the admission of 31 employees. In 2017, workers were admitted to 64 new places,” said the member of the Government.
This year, applications for authorization to hire are for consulates in Beira, Boston, Caracas (two vacancies), Stuttgart, Johannesburg, London (two vacancies), Lyon, Maputo, New York Sydney, Toronto, Valencia and Vancouver; the consulates of Belo Horizonte and New Bedford, the Vice Consulate of Providence and the Consular Office of Santos (three vacancies).
Included in this reinforcement are the Consular Sections of several embassies, including those in Madrid (two vacancies), Berlin, Dublin and Praia.
The strengthening of senior technicians will take place in the consulates general of San Francisco, Beijing, Guangzhou, Abuja, Canberra and Tel Aviv, while those in Geneva, Johannesburg, Newark, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Francisco, São Paulo and Toronto will receive foreign chancellors.
With these contracts, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) will have, on December 31, 2018, more than 3,033 employees, representing an increase of 275 jobs compared to the homologous period, of which 100 results from the integration process of precarious.
José Luís Carneiro pointed out that, this year, the tendency to reduce the previous ones has been reversed, with an impact on the diplomatic and technical personnel in internal and external services.
In 2016, in addition to the reinforcement of the consulates-general of London, Paris and São Paulo with the appointment of assistant consul-general, 21 workers were admitted, two senior technicians, 18 technical assistance and one operational assistant.
In that year, chancellors were also placed in the consulates of Manchester, Luxembourg, Luanda, Stuttgart and the Dili embassy, as well as a senior technical adviser at the Consulate in Barcelona and a social attaché at the Caracas embassy in Venezuela.
Last year, 64 technical assistants were admitted to the consular network and two attachés were placed for the social area in embassies, one in London and another in Caracas.
As stated in the External Representation Budget Program, a document of the State Budget 2019, enlargement of human resources in the diplomatic and consular network “allows continuing the process of restoring the level of human resources considered indispensable for the development of external state action.“
