Laziness proves costly

Civil servants in Saudi Arabia work only an hour a day and the country faces bankruptcy in three years unless austerity measures are enforced, senior officials have warned. The bloated public sector, which employs more than 70 per cent of the workforce, is woefully unproductive, according to Khaled al-Araj, the civil service minister. He told a TV debate that state employees, many of whom had little incentive to work, barely put in 60 minutes a day at the office. The uncharacteristically blunt and public assessment comes as the country struggles with falling oil prices. Its budget deficit was nearly US$100 billion last year. Last month, public sector salaries, which accounted for half of all government spending last year, were slashed, but alAraj urged further cuts, given his assessment of civil servants’ work ethic.