Most violent protesters are those of least reformed ministries

Most violent protesters thus far, it turns out, have been the employees of the Interior and of the Finance Ministries. Yet in these two ministries, the number of employees rose by 50% and 25% from 2005 through 2009.
The protest of the employees in the institutions subordinated to the Finance Ministry caused by the withholding of the financial incentives expanded yesterday. Thus two of the ministries with the highest number of staff and also the least reformed – the Ministry of Administration and Interior (MAI) a few weeks ago and the Finance Ministry now, are the most vocal protesters against budget austerity.
MAI is currently employing almost 150,000 people, 50% more than in 2005 when the number stood at 104,000, while the Finance Ministry has 34,000 employees, 25% more than in 2005.
Lucian Croitoru, NBR Governor’s advisor, says that public sector wages must be decent but the system does not allow it because of the too high number of employees. “Salaries need to be decent in the public sector. On the other hand, the system does not allow it, because there is surplus staff. They have too many people to whom to pay high wages.”
The payroll fund of the Finance Ministry (incentives not included) has almost tripled in the last five years, from 170 million RON to 560 million RON. In Interior Ministry’s case, the payroll fund rose from 760 million RON in 2002 to 1.9 billion RON in 2009.