Some public institutions “doctor” employee numbers for higher wages

Some institutions in the public sector reportedly hike their employee figures in order to get more money for wages. The daily Pravo broke the news on Monday saying that while government austerity measures had frozen salaries in most public sector institutions Prague Castle employees got regular salary hikes. This was possible due to the fact that the Office of the President artificially raised the number of employees to 114 while in reality it was employing merely 87. Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek told Czech Television that this tactic, employed by some firms, was unethical but not strictly illegal since it was hard to prove that the additional posts would not be filled shortly.