"It seems to me that the number of officials receiving officials' salaries will soon be twice the previous number," Kosor said.

"The number of those who can use limitless credit cards has been increased. The number of those who have the right to expense accounts, credit cards and unlimited spending of taxpayers' money has been increased," the former PM told reporters in parliament.

She recalled that her government had limited such privileges to state secretaries and ministers and only in case of official trips.

"What is most questionable is the return of politically suitable people to state-owned companies and their supervisory boards. It takes us back to the situation of several years ago, because (the former government's) decision to invite applications (for those positions) had additionally depoliticised the management of companies," Kosor said, adding that her government had appointed professionals regardless of their political affiliation.

Asked if the size of the state administration was a hot potato her government had avoided to deal with, just like the government of PM Zoran Milanovic was avoiding to deal with it today, Kosor said her government had introduced the practice of replacing two retiring employees in the state administration with one new worker, chosen in a public procedure.

"Now we see the size of the state administration growing, without announcements of vacancies or background checks."

Former Agriculture Minister Petar Cobankovic said the situation in agriculture would become unbearable if farming grants were reduced by one billion kuna as announced in guidelines for drafting this year's budget.

He dismissed Agriculture Minister Tihomir Jakovina's claim that his predecessor had left him a debt of 1.134 billion kuna at the ministry.

"There are no debts. There are certain obligations, but those obligations had been envisaged and they are not from yesterday," Cobankovic said.

The national trade union of government employees said the criticism of the now ruling Kukuriku coalition about the excessive number of state secretaries in the government of PM Jadranka Kosor now seemed contradictory in light of a current wave of appointments of assistant ministers, who now number 69.

Administration Minister Arsen Bauk dismissed the HDZ's objection that the new government had not fulfilled its promise to reduce the number of government officials, but had increased it instead.

Reporters approached Bauk in parliament to ask him for his comment on the HDZ's claim that the HDZ-led government had 80 officials, while the new government had 120 officials already at the beginning of its term.

Bauk said the Jadranka Kosor cabinet had 229 assistant ministers, state secretaries and ministry department heads, while the government of incumbent PM Zoran Milanovic had 143 such officials.

He said the office of ministry department head was the issue at dispute, adding that tasks of previous department heads were now performed by assistant ministers and "colleagues in the HDZ know that very well."

He said the previous government appointed ministry department heads as assistant ministers, and later changed legislation in order to appoint them ministry department heads with the status of government employees.

"Those people do the same job, but assistant ministers leave with the change of government, which is fair, while department heads stay, which is not fair," Bauk said.

He went on to say that savings to be made by reducing the number of such positions ranged from 1.6 to 1.7 million kuna monthly, adding that the process was not over yet.

Alluding to the case of a senior official at the former Ministry of Regional Development, Forestry and Water Management, Bauk said: "If his status had been that of assistant minister, it would have been fair, he would have come and left with the change of government, but now he stays. It is only one example, there are probably many such cases, but we still have not started analysing how many people they have appointed. Some of their (former government's) secretaries are today assistant or deputy ministers," Bauk said.

He said that an important element in dealing with the current situation was distinguishing between government employees and government officials, namely the fact that officials leave with the change of government, while government employees stay.

The minister added that his ministry was working on a register of government employees to make it functional.

So far, 200 public institutions have listed their employees and the list contains around 226,000 people, he said.