More on CWB Expenses

I was asked if I had any more insights into CWB expenses.  How about this?

A while back I mentioned that since the CWB board of directors have been in charge, CWB human resource expenses (salaries and benefits) have risen 60%, now sitting at $43 million in 08-09.  That’s quite a jump over the years.  Another way to look at this is to consider these expenses on a per employee basis.

Since 97-98, the number of CWB full time employees has dropped from 576 to 458.  So, on the basis of cost per employee, human resource expenses have risen from $50,978 per employee to $94,576 per employee.

This is a 101% increase since the board of directors took over.  This works out to an annual compound rate of 6.6% per year.

I don’t begrudge anyone a good salary and I believe in rewarding performance.  But - is it just me, or does this look like something more than that?

And since we’re talking about employee expenses, I should also note that the amount paid in outsourcing (employing professionals for their service but not on the payroll) has also increased considerably.  This includes what the CWB has called “management consulting”, “professional fees” and “computer services”.  The Annual Reports don’t report these items consistently over the years so I just lump them together.  Since the directors have been in charge, outsourcing has gone up from $9.8 million per year to $17.5 million – an increase of 78%.

So the number of employees goes down by 20% but the cost of consultants goes up by 78%.  A question comes to mind but I don’t think I need to even ask it.

CWB Annual Reports