I worked in local government for 6 years – the amount of wastage is amazing. Money is wasted on all sorts so that budgets arent lost the following year,
Also staff sickness – there is a big sickness mentality especially for depression/stress with some staff (i have seen this) going of for sick for 6 months, coming back when there sick pay is reduced – taking holiday they are entitled for normally 2 weeks then coming back to work for a week and off again with stress.
They also pay consultants thousands for bollocks like marketing and PR. My local and the one I worked for actually spent 500k producing a magazine about their good work but then shut down all elderly persons day care centers due to a 500k budget deficit.