Along with the establishment of democracy in Spain, came the creation of autonomous regions. Soon after, the centralized power of Madrid started to decentralize. It was logical and appropriate to decentralize the administration in order to have a better understanding of the reality of the different regions, cities and towns. For that reason, the "autonomías" (autonomous regions) were created: to decentralize decisions and to bring the administration closer to the citizen.

Nowadays, if we took an opinion poll about the “civil servants” in Spain and their cost to each of us, the great majority of people would say that there are too many of them and that they cost us too much. Public Administration in Spain has three levels: state, autonomous and local level.

The EAE Business School has carried out a survey titled "El coste de la Administración Pública en España" ("The cost of the Spanish Public Administration"). According to this survey, from 2000 to 2008 in the European Union, the percentage of growth of total public expenditure per civil servant was 36.2%, in Germany it was 17.7% and in Spain it was 58.7%

The main conclusions of this report are that the size of the public sector has experienced a disproportionate growth during the last decade; such an increase has occurred, mainly, in the number of employees at the autonomous and local level of administration.

Public administration seems to exist completely separate from the economic crisis. While unemployment increased by 1,280,300 persons in 2008, the number of civil servants increased by 116,200 people. This means that, contrary to logic, which would be to freeze the hiring of civil servants or reduce the number of them during the crisis, instead, Spain decided to hire more of them.

According to the “Encuesta de Población Activa (EPA)” (Survey of the Working Population) for the last quarter of 2008, for the first time there are more than three million civil servants in the public sector (3,029,5000). This inexplicable record number of civil servants was broken when at the end of 2008, the unemployment rate reached 3,207,900 persons.

But there is one more enlightening figure: in all of Spain, the civil servant ratio is 56.4 per 1000 inhabitants, while in the Canaries, the ratio is 61.2, i.e., there are 61 public workers per 1000 Canarian citizens; in other words, 61 public workers are in charge of the “administration” of only one thousand people.

In Spain, with the spectacular economic growth we experienced during the last decades, the autonomous and local administrations grew without stopping. But now the public administration has economic problems and it should lighten its charge.

There are two ways to become a civil servant: you can be hired through a process of official state exams known as oposiciones, which must be passed by candidates in order to obtain one of a certain number of job positions; the other way is by being directly hired. If the Administration wishes, it can start dismissing people, but this is a decision that carries a high political and economic cost, since in Spain, dismissals are followed by large severance pays. Also, this would cause (another) increase in unemployment. Cronyism has also been practiced in Spain, mainly by mayors, who have used their influence to have their relatives, friends, etc… hired as civil servants.

The Canaries have to bear the cost of the 54,490 public workers that are employed in the autonomous community which is 2.272 million Euros.

This is not only an economic problem; currently, certain information has become public and has left the citizens astonished: more than 8,500 public workers are absent from their workplace everyday. This is a disproportionate absentee rate of nearly 15%, while the rate in the private sector is only 5%. More often than not, this absenteeism is determined by medical leave, for instance, depression.
In conclusion, considering the economic crisis we are suffering, it is time for reflection and for tightening our belts, but the Public Administration should first display an austere image and enact a much-needed reduction in force. Although it is painful for many people, it will be for the good of the community but who will make the decision?