Yes. Senior Civil Servants manage the government agencies. And it all goes downhill from there. Most senior civil servants are politically savy (having to duck each change in government). but they are the government. The expertise.
A newly elected official put in charge of an agency has to depend on these civil servants. The elected official should do his homework on his department, and what his subordinates are trying to pawn off under him (look at the BC legislative scandal).
An Ambitious person gets attached to a politician and before the politician leaves(or gets canned), he transfers to some other bureaucratic department (sliding sideways) skipping the long line of others waiting in the ranks....
A government department has certain responsilbilities it has to do (Fisheries- follows the fisheries Act etc; most have them listed on their websites with links to references too).
Government workers are not just office workers, they have to go out into the field. Visiting other places. This involves travel and hotels. (major budget exponet).
Most government agencies are underfunded to the job they have to do. Yes they do wasted money on stupid things. but anything to please the boss == right....
Underfunded and Under Equipped. Makes job satisfaction not likely.
Then there are the gov slugs.. the ones who answear the phone and listen to assholes yelling and complaining about things..... Yup they have attitude.... Can you fiqure out why??
Then there are the gov slugs (under union)... Sorry not my job.... Frustrating.....
Then there are the government contractors: Look up MERC system for fed government requires for contracts. These contractors hire mid management supervisors at sub-par wages to look after sub-par underpaid (min wage) employees to do the contract. Contractor makes the money. The employees do a so-so job and the mid management supervisors take all the shit and do what they can, within the limits of the contractor.
Now the civil servants that write the contracts don't know what the fuck they are doing, because they lack the job experience because they (were the political bum boys who transferred), so contracts get screwed and if certain things n the contract were not stated, they don't get done unless a add-on is applied to the contract. So the contract becomes larger than expected because of oversight of the civil servant. So the budget is affected for that department.
Yes money is wasted that way under contracts.
The Harper government was trying to consolidated alot of the government contracts to make it cheaper. Look at email for government departments. Treasury Board controls the finances of every gov dept. Enforcing rules of buying equipment and supplies. There are contracts for paper, pens, pencils- all standardized now. So if someone wants a super-dooper pen, they have to buy it from there own budget or know the item number for the more expensive item. And yes the senior civil servant uses different pencils and pens then the low person on the totem pole (after all rank/position has its priveledges).... Its still very much a class system of rank and priveledge. The Harper government was calling the First Nations out on how they spent their money. With Trudeau it went out the window. The chiefs were ripping off their own people, paying themselves high salaries among the 5 or 6 people that covered their own asses, meanwhile complaining to their people its the whites mans fault for the way you live.....
There might be a rule out there in government land about travelling more than 12 hours. If traveling more than 12 hours on a airplane you have to take business class. So Senior staff get business class, and the lowly peon gets standard fare. So flying from Halifax to Vancouver, the senior guy get business (serveral stop overs) and the peon gets standard (serveral stop overs) ; both on the same flight....hhmmm...?? business class cost 3X as much and those senior people fly way more often than the peons.... try video conferencing....
lots of loopholes to cut. But your average government worker is working for you. Like any organization there are good people and lazy people. Their jobs depend on the materials and resources they have at hand, which in these days is not much. The hard budgets cuts of the 1990's has had its affect on the overall government systems to maintain government departments responsibilities and in places have failed. (The major budgets cut jobs because salary is a big budget user; so government dept lost experienced personnel).
if every government worker was ethical and worked for the public good (look at the bc legislature scandal), there still wouldn't be enough money to do all the things each gov dept is supposed to do. As the public we should expect that the workers are working for the good of all Canadians.....to be fiscally responsible to Canadians, but some are greedy....