Dutch Ministries cut back on events, travel, and contractors to meet budget goals

Dutch ministries are reportedly struggling to meet the coalition government’s mandated budget cuts, with various departments opting to eliminate expenses such as receptions, business trips, and outsourced personnel in an attempt to save money. While some ministries seek savings in reserves, others are focusing on reducing external hires and luxury expenditures. The planned cuts aim to reduce ministry budgets by 22 percent and collectively save over 1 billion euros by 2029.

Despite these efforts, there are no immediate plans for large-scale layoffs within the civil service. Instead, ministries are relying on "natural attrition" and reassessing whether certain positions need to be filled, according to a survey conducted by De Telegraaf.

The cabinet under Prime Minister Schoof has set a goal of cutting more than 1 billion euros from the growing budgets of government ministries, though these cuts are not yet being implemented through drastic measures. Unlike the United States, where former President Donald Trump aggressively reduced government staffing, the Dutch approach thus far has been more measured.

A review of ministry responses shows a clear trend: cost-cutting measures are initially targeting expenditures such as receptions, international travel, external staffing, and communication departments. The Ministry of Social Affairs, for instance, plans to meet its budget targets by drawing from reserves. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture is reducing spending on off-site meeting locations, and the Ministry of General Affairs is looking to acquire newspapers and trade publications at lower costs.

Coalition parties PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB agreed in their governing program to "substantially reduce the number of civil servants and external hires." Every ministry is expected to cut approximately 22 percent of its budget, with the notable exception of the Ministry of Defense, which is set to receive increased funding to meet NATO obligations.

In addition to the 1 billion euros in planned savings, the government has also agreed to cut 173 million euros in civil service costs as part of adjustments to the education budget.

Michiel de Vries, professor of public administration, criticized the approach as "a shot in the dark." He argued that "nobody knows whether these cuts will actually make the government more efficient because no prior research has been conducted." De Vries supports reducing spending on external contractors, noting that "outsourced work costs four times as much as hiring someone permanently. And with around 1,000 communications staffers in the central government, is that really necessary?"

Although previous cabinets under Prime Minister Rutte significantly reduced the size of the civil service, recent years have seen substantial expansion. According to the Jaarrapport Bedrijfsvoering Rijk (Annual Report on Central Government Operations), the number of government employees grew by approximately 24 percent between 2019 and 2023. In 2019, around 127,000 people worked for the national government, a figure that had risen to 156,000 by 2023. The Ministry of Justice and Security alone had more than 34,000 employees by last year.

This expansion has led to increased salary costs, which rose by over 2 billion euros in the same period. Similarly, spending on external personnel surged from 2.7 billion euros in 2022 to 3.3 billion euros in 2023, representing more than 15 percent of the total personnel budget.

Marcel Boogers, professor of democracy, believes that reducing event catering budgets is "small beer" and suggests a more systematic approach. "Over the past few years, many responsibilities have been decentralized to municipalities. Logically, this should mean fewer national-level civil servants are needed, but that hasn’t happened. Instead, municipal governments have had to hire additional staff while national-level positions remained intact."

Despite recognizing the need for fiscal discipline, Boogers described the planned 22 percent budget cut as severe. "Compared to other countries, the Netherlands already has relatively few civil servants. We are closer to the United States in this regard, but we employ far fewer government workers than Germany, France, or Belgium."

In the United States, Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk have proposed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative to dramatically cut government costs. Under their plan, the U.S. Department of Education would be reviewed using artificial intelligence to determine whether the agency could be downsized or entirely eliminated.

De Vries warned that such aggressive measures carry risks. "If you eliminate oversight of education, for example, you may find that quality deteriorates further."