Financial bureaucrat numbers continue to climb

Despite ongoing increases in government staffing numbers across various sectors, including finance, the public is not seeing any increase in the level of service it receives, according to Grant Montgomery, managing director of executive search firm E.L. Consult.

Figures contained in the firm’s E.L Index indicate that the proportion of government employees working within finance specialisations grew from 5.4 per cent in December 2004 to 10.2 per cent in December 2006.

Montgomery said this increase does not mean there has necessarily been any improvement in service, suggesting instead there has been a decline.

He partly attributed this growth to investors’ burgeoning interest in infrastructure assets, which in turn has led to greater government involvement in private enterprise through vehicles such as public/private partnerships.

Another reason he cited for the increases became evident through correlation studies by E.L. Consult, which showed demand for finance staff was directly related to the higher levels of consumer and business spending.

Montgomery believes these findings contradict government claims over a long period of time that it is streamlining its offices and scaling back on double handling.

“The catchcry has often been, ‘Where has the money gone?’. Well, the clear answer is bigger bureaucracies.

“But state governments are not the only problem. The Federal Government has now more Mandarins than ever before despite an ongoing promise for smaller government,” he said.

Montgomery believes the Government’s common justification that extra staff are needed to improve security is false.

“The spending increases cannot be explained away by the necessity for increased security. Public sector managers have increased in just about every area,” he said.