The Opposition is calling on Finance Minister Paula Cox to get a grip after Budget statistics show Government jobs have gone up by almost 1,000 since 2000/01.

More than 700 of those jobs have sprung up in the last two years while this Budget shows an increase of 260 from last year’s total to 5,617.

And detailed figures in this year’s Budget show that wages and salaries have also shot up by a combined $35.9 million for 2007/08 to $388.7 million. In 2000/01 Government employment stood at 4,627 — almost 1,000 fewer jobs than today. Opposition Finance spokeswoman Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said: “Government has again budgeted an increase in the size of the civil service.

“When the PLP came to power, its first order of business was to find a scissors man to cut out the pockets of sloppiness. It is odd that within nine years, they managed to find the accelerator rather than the terminator.

“The total increase in Government salaries, wages and employer overhead, expenditure attributable directly to staffing, is an increase of nearly $44 million — to a whopping total of $437 million.”

Topping the list for increase is the Department of Health, where 70 new staff are planned, followed by Works and Engineering with 48, said Mrs. Pamplin-Gordon, who will kick off a mammoth debate with her reply to the Budget. “Not to be overlooked are the five additions in Cabinet Office, where salaries and wages have increased by $676,000 or an average of $135,000 per person. What could justify such an increase?”

Quizzed about the large hike in public sector employment Finance Minister Paula Cox said Government was always concerned about the cost to the public purse and that increases cannot always be done in one fell swoop, even where there is a demonstrable need.

Asked if the principle of zero-based budgeting — in which departments had to start from scratch when budgeting each year rather than building on the previous levels — were still being applied she said: “The principle of zero-based budgeting applies to the expenditure of the public purse generally and Ministries and Ministers know they are expected to derive maximum value from their expenditure budget.

“However negotiated salary settlements are usually a fixed cost and are factored into the Budget separate and apart from programme expansion or new programmes and initiatives. The amount of new money allotted in 2007/08 for new programmes and initiatives was $33 million.”

And Ms Cox said the jobs that are not seen as necessary or required for the long-term are left unfilled or may be filled with temporary placements.

Bermuda Public Services Union leader Ed Ball said Government had outstanding vacancies for a number of years.

“As Government attempts to deliver services for the populace you need bodies.”

He said the BPSU was familiar with the need for the call for productivity and efficiency but in order for this to be at an optimum level people needed training.

Opposition MP Grant Gibbons said of the job hike: “It is unprecedented growth. The bottom line is the taxpayer has to wonder what they have got for the increases.

“The salary bill has to be recouped by larger taxes.”

He said the growth was even bigger than the figures at first revealed because some public sector bodies had been taken out of the numbers in the early days of the Progressive Labour Party Government — such as the Bermuda College and the Small Business Development Corporation.

Dr. Gibbons echoed concerns already raised by Chamber of Commerce president Peter Everson who said the rise in Government jobs had the ultimate effect of creating more demand for expatriate workers.

Dr. Gibbons said: “If more Bermudians have careers in the civil service then less are available for jobs in the private sector.”

And he said Government was in the main looking for the same type of people as business — skilled, qualified Bermudians.

“If Bermudians are not available because they are working in the civil service they will bring in non-Bermudians to staff those private sector positions.”

Asked about the impact Government was having on work permit numbers by pulling Bermudians out of the labour pool Finance Minister Paula Cox said such issues needed to be addressed to the Labour and Immigration Minister.

She added: “I have no doubt that in the general economic debate (today) or in the Budget debate proper on the various heads of the revenue and expenditure over the next few weeks that these issues will be fully explored in both the House and the Senate.”

1,000 more Govt. jobs since 2001