CHILD protection caseworker jobs across NSW have sometimes been left unfilled in an effort to save money.
The former deputy chief executive of operations at the Department of Community Services, Helen Freeland, told an upper house inquiry on ministerial propriety on Monday that the department had implemented a range of measures to "shave parts off the budget".
She said she noticed there had been a reduction in caseworker numbers across the state by January this year.
"We had positions which were vacant but we didn't have the salary to pay people if we recruited against those vacancies," she told the inquiry.
The inquiry, which was set up by the NSW opposition, is probing whether Minister Pru Goward misled parliament about caseworker numbers.
Ms Goward has faced sustained pressure since denying any knowledge of an Ernst & Young report that contradicted her claims that NSW had more than 2060 caseworkers. Only 1797 positions had been filled.
Ms Freeland told the inquiry she was required to make savings in the operations budget.
While the savings were not made by reducing caseworker numbers, she said a number of small savings measures were imposed.
"It has been standard practice for a number of years to fund salaries at the midpoint," she said.
"There were some weeks where a position might be vacated by a caseworker before you can appoint someone permanently to that position, so in that time you make some savings."
Labor MP Luke Foley asked whether one response to budget pressures was to stop filling the 2068 budgeted caseworker positions.
"It's a decision that some regional directors took because when they worked out what their salaries budget was, they calculated that there were positions that they couldn't fill from time to time," Ms Freeland replied.
The opposition has claimed Premier Barry O'Farrell is trying to protect Ms Goward after he announced last month that lower house ministers need not attend the inquiry.
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