"It is very likely that there is a surplus of employees in one segment and a shortage in another, who could be reassigned, but it is very hard to look at all aspects in about 80 days," Bauk told reporters during a break in a symposium on the law on nongovernmental organisations which was organised as part of the IPA 2009 project "Strengthening the capacity of the Government Office for NGOs to build effective partnerships with civil society in the fight against corruption."

"The (large) number of towns, municipalities and counties does not necessarily mean big bureaucracy and unnecessary spending. Some countries have more municipalities, but are organised differently; they do not have such a large bureaucratic apparatus and spend less. The general position should be that we are not against municipalities, but against unreasonable spending, especially against luxury at local level being paid for by all citizens from the state budget," Bauk said.

Bauk said that the number of planned executive posts and other jobs in core state administration had been reduced and that the focus was now on rationalising the number of agencies at county level. He said that between 8,000 and 9,000 people were currently working in core state administration.