PHILIPSBURG — The civil service currently employs 1,685 people divided over seven ministries and there are 710 vacancies. If all vacancies were filled, the civil service would be 2,395 strong. This appears from data in the draft 2019 budget; they show that the civil service is at 70.4 percent of its desired strength.
The 1,685 civil servants earn an average salary of 90,569 guilders per year. The highest average salary is at the ministry of finance (96,568 guilders), closely followed by the ministry of public health, social development and labor (96,117). The lowest average salary is at the ministry of Economic Affairs and Tourism (85,530 guilders per year) and at the ministry of public housing, urban planning, environment and infrastructure (86,700).
The ministry of justice has the most employees – 551 – and also the most vacancies: 255. It is also the only ministry that has budgeted for hiring seventeen new workers at a cost of 656,268 guilders – an average of 38,604 guilders per employee.
While the overview of employees per ministry list zero budget for hiring at the other six ministries, elsewhere in the budget the government mentions the intention to hire 50 to 60 people this year.
The number of employees does not include those who work at the parliament and high councils of state: together they employ 97 people at a cost of 12,095,198 – an average salary of 124,693 guilders. Not included are the number of employees and the cost of these people at the national security service VDSM because this is confidential information.
There was some confusion about the remuneration for parliamentarians; the budget mentions that the remuneration for the fifteen MPs went up by 544,047 guilders (12.3 percent) to over 4.9 million guilders, while there is still a decision pending about a request to voluntarily lower the money the parliamentarians receive by 10 percent.
This did not escape the attention of the Council of Advice and financial supervisor Cft, who both asked questions about this issue. The Cft asked the government when such a decision may be expected.
The explanation given for the increase is that the amount includes payments for faction support. The remuneration for parliamentarians has remained unchanged since 2017. The fifteen MPs receive 3,510,489 per year, an average of a bit more than 234,000 per person. Faction support cost more than 1.1 million guilders in 2017, just over 900,000 in 2018 and is budgeted at more than 1.4 million this year.
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Download the complete DRAFT 2019 BUDGET here
