Provincial governments and local councils can easily halve the number of executives they employ if they focus on their core responsibilities, says Ivo Opstelten, chairman of the opposition right-wing Liberal (VVD) party, in an interview in Wednesday’s Financieele Dagblad.

‘The Netherlands has the highest ratio of local government executives in the world. That has to be brought down and now we have the momentum,’ Opstelten is quote as saying by the paper.
Opstelten’s comments kick off the national political discussion scheduled to take place this spring over cuts in the civil service, says the Financieele Dagblad.

Some 20 committees are currently preparing proposals on how the cabinet can make structural spending cuts of billions of euros.
Earlier this month the FD reported that around half of the proposals for €35bn worth of cuts will go ahead which represents 10% of the country’s budget.