Interior Ministry has 50,000 people working its offices

The Interior Ministry hired more than 50,000 people from 2004 through 2009, and is therefore the ministry that hired the most people over the last few years, with annual salary spending worth 1.4 billion euros. The authorities involved in this process believe the reasons can be explained. As military service is no longer mandatory, contract staff was needed to replace conscripted personnel. It has been said here that in 2005, after the Social Democratic Party (PSD) lost the elections, 5,500 officers of the Interior Ministry were laid off with severance pay and new people were hired to replace them.
No one knows for sure whether the over 50,000 extra positions have been filled or not, but the certain thing is that the Ministry did finance them, as showed by a comparison of the data in the laws and budget spending reports of the ministry, endorsed over the years.
The state is spending more than 1.4 billion euros a year to pay police officers, gendarmes, employees of the Romanian Immigration Office or those of the Passport or of the Driving Licenses and Vehicle Registration Departments.