The WA government has been criticised for financial mismanagement amid claims it squandered almost half-a-billion dollars on temporary staff.
Opposition leader Mark McGowan raised concern about the logic behind the government's sacking of 2500 public servants coupled with an attempt to plug the staffing gap with temporary workers.
Mr McGowan said the government recently awarded a five-year $475 million contract to provide temporary clerical, finance, accounting, professional and IT services.
He said the new contract represented a $275 million blowout on the previous five-year temporary staff contract worth $200 million.
"Colin Barnett is sacking staff and spending hundreds of millions to hire staff to fill the gaps,"Mr McGowan said.
"This scandalous waste defies logic. Why get rid of trained professionals and then pay much more for fill-in staff who don't have the same level of experience?
"No wonder our State's budget is such a mess and debt is out of control under Colin Barnett and the Liberal-Nationals.
"Mr Barnett cuts funding to our hospitals and schools and then wastes millions."
He said Mr Barnett last year admitted that the cost of the previous contract was high and claimed staff could be managed better.
WA was recently stripped of its prized AAA credit rating by Moody's Investors Service for the first time since 1996.
WA's debt is growing and estimated to reach $29 billion in 2018. It was $3.6 billion in 2008.
But a spokesman for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet said the accusations lack substance.
"This is more desperation from Opposition Leader Mark McGowan referring to a contract that is almost 12-months old and scaremongering about public servants being sacked," he said.
"No one has been sacked."
The spokesman said there were factors the opposition had not taken into account.
"The contract is for providers of those services over the next five years," he said.
"In the public service, which has more than 100,000 public servants, there are often many reasons for workers going on leave - long service, carers, pregnancy, sickness, etc.
"We fill these temporary vacancies with temporary people and that is what the contract refers to," he said.
And the "$275 million blowout" is the result of a range of variables, according to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.
"The contract has increased in value, but that is due to increased numbers in the public service, an increase in leave, wage increases, etc," the spokesman said.
"The state government has a current voluntary redundancy scheme and in that there is no capacity to replace exiting FTEs with temporary or permanent people.
"The estimated contract value is based on the estimated total turnover over the life of the contract including any possible extensions.
"This is not a guarantee of spend."
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