The main task of ministries in Hungary is to prepare government decisions. When the government has taken a decision, after considering a number alternatives that are equally acceptable from a professional point of view, the relevant ministry will draw up the legislation, whether law or decree.

Central administration, in contrast, is responsible for executing routinely repeating tasks requiring professional expertise as opposed to political decision-making.

Now, with the recent integration of central administration into the ministries, the two functions - political and professional - are intermingled, which will cause a lot of trouble.

Why is it such a big problem that the ministries will lose their independence?

Basically, for three reasons. The first danger is implied in the controllability of the authorities' decisions. What is the greatest danger to the lawfulness and independence of authorities' decisions? Politics, of course. When decision-making is explicitly integrated into ministries, even the appearance of independence gets lost.

Henceforth, essentially nothing will save political enemies from being punished, or stop the licensing of buddies' businesses and politically prioritized projects.

The second danger is the loss of professional control. For instance, the authority responsible for the preservation of heritage has so far been able to prevent the authorization of construction work causing the devastation of monuments. In blending professional responsibilities into ministries, the formal opportunity for independent decision-making is lost.

The third danger is the confusion of responsibilities involved in the merger of bodies. Think, for instance, how a patients' rights representative can take action against a hospital when he or she works at the Health Ministry, which has been doing nothing else lately but restating over and over that "everything is fine in health care."

Why is all this good for the government, and what are the expected consequences?

The huge institutions created are simply uncontrollable: no leader can manage an organization with a staff of thousands of people, deal with organizational and professional issues, or be aware all the time who has to do what. Thus efficiency will not be improved in the new system, which will instead close the door to correct decision-making altogether and practically paralyze public administration.

The transformation cannot be supported by any administrative or policy arguments, the only remaining motive behind it being the total seizure of political power.

Public administration has already often waited idly for political commands from above. In a system like this, no one ever will have the courage to make a step before the minister gives his or her consent.

Whatever this steamroller will leave behind, we dare not even think. But we see already that this is part of why, as a watchdog organization, we will have many more tasks in 2017 than ever before.