The public administration and the other state-run institutions waste 600 million euros per year, in wage funds for jobs and for civil servants who are simply not there, says Varujan Vosganian, Minister of Economy and Finance. "At least 600 million euros (i. e. 8% of the budget's personnel spending) are funds allocated for non-existent civil servants and for vacancies)," he said.

Under the budget law, the Ministry of Finance allocates yearly sums for personnel spending, sums, which ministries, schools and hospitals are distributing for the payment of wages, bonuses and taxes due for state employees.

However, in the administration and in the other state-run institutions, there are around 8% vacancies, i.e. positions which are there officially, for which sums are allocated in the budget, but which are not filled.

Nonetheless, the money earmarked for these positions never remains unspent: the ministries spend all of it on bonuses or even for hiring new people, "because they can afford it"," says the head of Finance.

The number of civil servants, particularly outside the capital city, is in many cases disproportionate. It is not normal for a commune with 5,000 inhabitants to have twice as many civil servants as another one with the same number of inhabitants, "but this does happen"," he says. According to preliminary calculations made by the Ministry of Finance, released for the first time for ZF, in some counties, the number of civil servants stands at 10 per every 1,000 inhabitants, while counties with a more complicated bureaucratic structure have 26 civil servants per every 1,000 inhabitants.

Additionally, many public institutions have more civil servants than necessary, either due to excessive hiring or as a result of not having cut their personnel when they reduced their scope of activity. Vosganian gave as an example the Employment