When other countries are working hard to make their public administration leaner, Malta appears to be heading in the opposite direction.
Latest official figures show a sharp rise in the number of workers engaged in the public sector, a matter that ought to raise concern over the growing size of public administration.
With the hiving off, over the years, of so many public services, the size of the public administration was expected to continue to drop. But it appears that the Labour government has other ideas. The Prime Minister’s highly extravagant move to have a super-size Cabinet is indicative of the government’s frame of mind.
Raising the public sector workforce by 1,879 in one year – March 2013 to March this year – is no joke in a country as small as Malta. In money terms, it is estimated to cost the exchequer €20 million a year. The Nationalist Party lost no time in hitting out at the government with regard to the increase in public sector employment, arguing that “this is one of the ways in which the government is trying to hide the unemployment problem in its first months in power”.
On the other hand, the finance minister welcomed the (NSO) figures, with the government remarking that it was encouraging to note the robust increases being registered in the private sector, especially in sensitive sectors.
Full-time employment rose by 3.6 per cent, or by 5,549, and part-time work as a primary job increased by 6.3 per cent, or 1,979, compared with the corresponding figures in March 2013.
The growth in employment in the private sector is significant and demonstrates greater domestic economic activity. However, is the rise in public sector employment not a matter that deserves to be fully explained?
The finance ministry is arguing that the current share of full-time jobs in the public sector is the lowest it has been over the past six years. That does not take away from the fact that workers are still being engaged in a sector that should be trimmed year after year.
Even if one were to subtract from the additional number of workers taken on during the whole year the workers who were transferred to the government from the bus company Arriva (680) on its departure at the beginning of this year and those engaged in the health and education sectors (700), the remainder would still remain high.
In view of the fact that these are all paid out of the taxpayer’s purse, the public obviously deserves to be told exactly where they have been employed. For example, no fewer than 70 cleaners had been engaged just before the European Parliament elections.
Of course, Nationalist administrations have also been responsible for abusing the power of incumbency and had taken on workers just before elections. But two wrongs do not make a right and the time for such shenanigans in public administration ought to have been considered over a long time ago. Yet, they remain alive and kicking.
The Prime Minister has as yet failed to give a satisfactory explanation to the public of the reasons why he decided to expand a Cabinet that is costing the country €8.5 million a year more.
According to figures that have so far not been denied, the cost of Joseph Muscat’s Cabinet over the term of this legislature is expected to come to €42 million. Along with this is the remuneration of a long list of political appointees.
Rather than becoming leaner, the administration is putting on more weight. This can only be a bad thing.