The Dutch government has spent almost a fifth more on hiring in workers and consultants in the last two years, claims the AD on Friday.

Despite calling for other firms to reduce the amount of flexible working, the paper says, the government has not got its own house in order.

It has investigated external hiring by Dutch ministries, provincial bodies, municipal councils and water boards, saying that last year this cost €2.4 bn and 13% of staffing budgets. This was a rise of 19% on the previous year.

But ministerial norms are to spend less than 10% of such costs on freelances, flexible workers and consultants.

Leading the way was the tax office, which reportedly spent €272 million on outside staff in 2016, followed by the infrastructure and environment and the justice ministries. Mostly, says the AD, the hires related to IT staff.

Zakaria Boufangacha, of the FNV union, told the AD that the situation was ‘disappointing and worrying.’