At the time he said it, it might have been true, that's the thing. A government department will be understaffed the few days of the year when they have to deal with a crisis, and they'll all be sitting around shuffling paperwork back and forth to each other the rest of the time. What's needed is a flexible structure with fewer people all of whom are capable of fulfilling whatever role is needed right now. Historically that has been prevented by "demarcation dispute", e.g. X union claiming only its members have the "right" to perform Y task.