Government's salary bill has jumped more than $60 million in two years.

An estimated $343 million will go on salaries in 2009/10, up from $339 million last year and $283 million the year before — an increase of $60.4 million or 21.3 percent since 2007/08.

The figures, revealed in Friday's Budget, contrast with a 14.6 percent fall in Government wages from $91 million to $78 million during the past two years.

An estimated 5,815 people will be employed by Government in 2009/10, up from 5,754 last year and 5,569 in 2007/08 — a rise of 246 or 4.4 percent in two years.

Meanwhile Government has cut its travel budget from $7.4 million last year to $6.3 million, a fall of 14.2 percent.

That move comes after criticism of soaring travel expenditure, which trebled in the decade leading up to 2008.

Last year Premier Dr. Ewart Brown announced Ministers would exercise greater oversight and care concerning how taxpayer money was spent on travel, as part of cutbacks which included the axing of advertising in The Royal Gazette.

In the Budget a month before this plan, Government had set aside $7,436 million for travel. Friday's Budget revealed that figure has been revised to $7,360 million — meaning Dr. Brown's call led to a drop of one percent in travel expenditure throughout 2008/09.

Political commentator Stuart Hayward, a long-time critic of lavish travel at the taxpayers' expense, said: "Government travel is one area where it is most difficult to show value for money. Part of the reason is that there is often little real value for the money spent.

"Far too often Government travel involves luxury accommodations, upper class seats on short flights, lavish receptions and gourmet dining, which are rarely justified and even more rarely revealed to the public in detail.

"We would prefer to see deep cuts in the amount and style of travel, cuts that recouped the apparent extravagances of recent years. The reduction compared to last year is welcome, but last year's travel figure was itself an extravagance and should not be considered a benchmark."