Humphrey CarterPalma17/02/2020 09:58
TW
1

There are a total of 56,236 civil servants in the Balearics helping to manage a total land mass of just under 5,000 square kilometres spread over four islands. That is around 8,000 more than the 43,903 employed in Scotland to oversee an area which covers 80,000 square kilometres and has a population of nearly 5,500 million spread across the mainland and 900 off islands, compared to the 1.1 million here in the Balearics.

It begs the question just what are they all doing in the Balearics. Well, 54 percent work for the autonomous, Balearic, authorities, 18 percent work for central government agencies (Madrid) and the rest the various local authorities like councils etc.

One can only wonder what the annual wage bill is to the public purse and surely, the financial outlay, not to mention repetition of certain tasks with three layers of bureaucracy doing the same job in many cases.

When one considers that the Balearic public defict has shot up over the past few years during which time Spain has been unable to secure a central government and has yet to sign off of a budget, a large slice of spending oustanding public monies in much needed infrastructure anmd general Balearic upkeep has been spent on civil servants, who are the first to threaten strike action over a missing or delayed euro or two, not that they are badly paid.

Perhaps, looking to the future, the new government might consider slimming down all the layers of public office to save money and time.