I'd be curious to know if this habit prevails in Europe...

In the US, when budgets are cut or austerity measures imposed, government agencies typically do not try to make themselves more efficient. More often they will deliberately cut services in visible areas that have immediate impact on the populace, hoping to generate public outcry and get "their" money restored. After all, if an agency accepted a budget cut, streamlined their operation, and continued without any reduction in services, they'd have little argument for getting more.

I'm wondering if the case cited above might have a bit of this habit in it...