D.Davaasambuu, advisor on economic policy to the Speaker
of Parliament, was in a working group that reviewed budget expenses. His
conclusion is that the way things are going there will soon be no money in the
budget t pay for even essential expenses. Salaries have gone out of control and
the whole thing is even more unfortunate because most employees do very little
or no work to justify their salary. This is quite well known as Parliament has
on two occasions instructed the Government to pare the bureaucracy, but
retrenching staff, especially during an economic crisis, is something the
Government did not dare to do.

Davaasambuu feels further delay in taking essential but
unpopular decisions will lead to serious consequences. Taxpayers have a right
to demand that their money is not spent unproductively, on paying salaries to
people who either have no work or do no work, or maybe both. The working group
found that at the soum level it is quite common to have five persons doing
something that can be done easily by one man. This overstaffing is not limited
to the junior levels only. Even at management levels, persons with
high-sounding designations such as vice- director of an agency actually could
not say what they were expected to do, or actually did.