On 13 August 2026, the Bolivian Government enacted Supreme Decree No. 5675, establishing a new Organisation of the Executive Branch. The decree, comprising 134 articles, entirely replaces Supreme Decree No. 4857 of 6 January 2023 and additionally repeals nine further organisational decrees issued between 2024 and 2026, together with six targeted derogations.
The measure forms part of the Government’s austerity policy and of the mandate to evaluate the structure of the public sector set out in Law No. 1356 and in Law No. 2042, as incorporated by Law No. 1613. Its recitals invoke a picture of recession, inflation, a high fiscal deficit and falling international reserves as justification for reordering the public administration, reducing bureaucracy and optimising public spending.
For the private sector, however, the decree’s significance lies not in its recitals but in two very concrete consequences: it changes the State counterparty in thousands of ongoing legal relationships, and it opens a ninety-day transition window in which that substitution must be carried out.
The substantive law has not changed; who applies it has.
A Central Administration of twelve ministries
Article 27 organises the Central Administration into twelve ministries: Foreign Affairs; the Presidency; Economy and Public Finance; Defence; Government; Labour; Sustainable Production, Environment and Water; Hydrocarbons and Energy; Mining and Metallurgy; Education; Health and Sports; and Public Works, Services and Housing.
Two portfolios disappear: the Ministry of Development Planning and Environment and the Ministry of Sustainable Tourism, Cultures, Folklore and Gastronomy. The decree itself clarifies that suppressing the former does not eliminate the Integrated State Planning System, public investment, external financing, the environment, or science and technology: it redistributes institutional ownership of those matters.
Two regroupings deserve particular commercial attention. The Ministry of Sustainable Production, Environment and Water now concentrates sustainable industrialisation, agricultural development, support for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, internal trade and logistics, consumer and user rights, environmental management, biodiversity, forests, climate change, water, basic sanitation and irrigation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, houses the Vice-Ministry of Foreign Trade, Economic Integration and Foreign Investment and adds the Vice-Ministry of Sustainable Tourism and Cultures.
What happens to the suppressed portfolios
The transitional provisions distribute the powers of the former Ministry of Development Planning and Environment: Science and Technology passes to the Ministry of Education; Strategic Planning to the Ministry of the Presidency; Public Investment and External Financing to the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance; and Environment, Biodiversity, Climate Change and Forestry Management and Development to the Ministry of Sustainable Production, Environment and Water. The matters handled by the former Ministry of Sustainable Tourism, Cultures, Folklore and Gastronomy pass in their entirety to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The transfer covers budget balances, staffing lines, assets, liabilities, documentation and real property. Assets not transferred to the competent entities are handed over to the National Service of State Property (SENAPE) by way of inventory and a formal handover record.
The continuity rule
Article 132 is the provision that holds the whole transition together in legal terms. It provides that the suppression, merger or renaming of a ministry does not extinguish the powers assigned to it; that those powers are assumed by the successor body competent for the subject matter; that references in current legislation to a suppressed body are understood as made to its successor; and that the successor assumes the corresponding rights, obligations, assets, liabilities, contracts, agreements, programmes, projects, archives and proceedings. Final Provision Three restates the rule for legislative references, and Final Provision One for powers set out in sector-specific legislation.
What the decree does not do also matters. Under paragraph VI of the same Article 132, the merger or suppression of a ministry does not automatically merge, suppress or extinguish the public entities or enterprises under its supervision, dependency or sectoral oversight.
Contracts and procurement: a critical distinction
Transitional Provision Seven separates two situations that should not be confused.
Contracts and agreements held by the extinguished ministries retain full validity and are assumed by the receiving ministry. The supplier’s contractual position is not weakened by the reorganisation.
Procurement processes for goods and services that had not concluded by the date the decree took effect are a different matter: the receiving ministry is empowered either to continue them or to set them aside, safeguarding the ministry’s economic interests. For a bidder whose proposal has been submitted but not awarded, that power is a real risk and should be managed as such.
In parallel, Transitional Provision Six establishes that ongoing judicial, constitutional and administrative proceedings are assumed immediately: those of the former Ministry of Sustainable Tourism, Cultures, Folklore and Gastronomy by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; those of the former Ministry of Development Planning and Environment by the ministry competent for the subject matter and, as regards its Central Administration, by the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance.
The transition deadlines
Three deadlines run from the date the decree takes effect. Ten working days for the receiving ministries to begin their adaptation process and issue the Ministerial Resolution approving their organisational structure. Fifteen working days for the budget modifications arising from the restructuring, which must be processed in an expedited and simplified manner. And ninety calendar days for the closure and handover of the extinguished ministries by means of notarised records, with a detailed inventory of movable and immovable property, vehicles, stock, assets, liabilities, obligations, contracts, agreements, procurement and asset-disposal processes, administrative and judicial proceedings, supporting documentation and physical and digital archives.
During that closure period, the institutional codes, budget structures, fiscal accounts and accounting records of the extinguished ministries remain valid exclusively for the operations required until closure is completed.
The Institutional Linkage Annex
Title IX and its Institutional Linkage Annex set out, entity by entity, the dependency, supervision or sectoral oversight applicable to deconcentrated, decentralised and autarkic entities and to public enterprises. Among others, SEPREC (the commercial registry), SENAPI (intellectual property), SENASAG (agricultural health and food safety), IBMETRO (metrology), SENAVEX (export verification), PRO-BOLIVIA and SERNAP (protected areas) are linked to the Ministry of Sustainable Production, Environment and Water; the National Tax Service (SIN), the National Customs Authority, the Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB) and the Financial Investigations Unit (UIF) to the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance; YPFB, ENDE, EBIH and YLB to the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy; and the ATT, the ABC and the DGAC to the Ministry of Public Works, Services and Housing.
The decree expressly limits the effect of that distribution: it does not modify the legal nature, legal personality, assets, or administrative, employment, tax or financial regime of any entity, and the omission of an entity or public enterprise from the Annex does not imply its suppression or extinction. Companies in which the State holds a shareholding fall outside the supervision regime and retain only a sectoral link with the responsible ministry.
Two further points are of direct commercial interest: the Tax Appeals Authority (AIT) continues to perform its objectives, functions and powers unchanged, and the deconcentrated public institution "CONOCE BOLIVIA" is renamed "BOLIVIA EN EL MUNDO" and placed under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Additional Provision One, for its part, defines the "Energy Sector" as covering hydrocarbons, electricity, alternative and renewable energies, nuclear energy, hydrogen and evaporitic resources.
Practical implications for businesses
The reorganisation does not alter the substantive law that applies, but it does alter the authority that applies it. Five fronts warrant immediate review.
Public procurement
Processes not yet awarded with the suppressed portfolios should be reviewed immediately: identify the receiving ministry, obtain written confirmation that the process will continue, and document all steps before the ninety-day closure.
Live contracts
Counterparty identification, notice addresses and payment instructions should be verified. The trusts of the former Ministry of Development Planning and Environment, in which it acted as settlor, are assumed by the Ministry of Sustainable Production, Environment and Water and require contractual addenda.
Filings, licences and permits
Pending applications before transferred vice-ministries must be redirected to the new authority, confirming that the file and the running of time limits have in fact been transferred.
Litigation and administrative proceedings
Proceedings continue, but the State party changes. Powers of attorney, notices and appearances should be updated accordingly.
Corporate and regulatory documentation
Contracts, internal policies and forms that name ministries under their former designation must be read in line with Article 132; for high-exposure documents, formal updating is advisable.
Strategic perspective
The decree’s bet is that a leaner Executive will reduce duplication and shorten procedures. Articles 10 and 11 raise administrative simplification, regulatory quality and digital transformation to organising criteria, and the decree insists that digital transformation does not consist of reproducing physical procedures by electronic means but of reviewing and redesigning them. Concentrating production, internal trade, environment and water in a single portfolio may, in time, simplify permits that today require visits to several counters.
The cost lies in execution. Final Provision Two warns that implementation will not entail additional resources from the National Treasury, so the reorganisation must be absorbed with existing capacity, on short timelines and with staff in transition: under Transitional Provision Two, the extinction of the ministries entails the discontinuation of the employment relationship with the extinguished ministry.
For businesses, the conclusion is simple to state and demanding to apply: the substantive law has not changed; who applies it has. The next ninety days will determine whether that substitution happens in an orderly way or leaves files, procurement processes and deadlines without a clear owner. Companies that take stock now of their own exposure — which contracts, which filings, which disputes and before which authority — will reach the end of the transition with fewer open questions than their competitors.
