Riya Mala 
Fiji’s civil service grew by 10,000 over the past decade to 42,000 due to increase in police officers, teachers, medical staff and ministries, says Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary Shiri Gounder.
He made the clarification in response to a query from Dr Mosmi Bhim from the Fiji National University during Dialogue Fiji’s National Budget Forum last night in Suva.
Dr Bhim said during the last Dialogue Fiji forum, former Attorney general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum highlighted that under the FijiFirst Government, there were 32,000 civil servants. He said at present it was 42,000 – an increase of 31%.
In response, the Finance Ministry PS said the civil service increase came from a growth in the size of the police force, teachers and medical staff. Gounder said from 2016 to now, there more than 1000 additional police officers, close to 1500 more teachers and close to 500 additional medical professionals.
He said another factor was the increase in number of ministries which required additional staff.
During his 2026-2027 Budget address, Finance Minister Esrom Immanuel said the total cost of the civil service was about $9 million a day in terms of wages and salaries, office space, computers, stationery, conferences, training , vehicles and fuel among other costs.
He said Government spent over $2.3 billion per year in wages and salaries and cost of support services required to operate the public sector – which is almost 50 percent of the total budget.
