The Dutch government needs to reorganise its civil service organisation, taking in support staff such as clerks, IT, technical maintenance and legal support.

An internal report says that parliament’s civil service does not function well, leading to slow reactions to new questions from MPs, broadcaster Nos quotes the report as saying.

The organisation, which involves 600 jobs, has not moved with the times, the report says.

Each division has its own IT system, leading to overlaps. There is little long-term planning and know-how is not shared. This leads to ad-hoc decision-making and ‘reinventing the wheel’, according to the report.

Positive

One positive is that the costs have not risen despite the increase in workload, and the Dutch parliament remains one of the cheapest in the world. However, much of the work is done in an informal manner and there is to much of a ‘family feeling’.

The average age of the staff is too high because young people leave quickly due to a lack of promotion opportunities.

The report has not yet been published, the Nos says, although parliamentary support staff can read it on the internal website, the Nos says.

The Nos does not say whether it has been accepted by MPs.