Treasury payouts used to cut $20m

Treasury bureaucrats are being offered payouts of up to $134,000 to walk away from their jobs as the department resorts to redundancies to try to balance its budget.

And departmental bosses are being offered unspecified ''incentives to retire'' as Treasury tries to cut nearly $20 million.

It is the department's second round of voluntary redundancies since last year.

Treasury workers must submit their expressions of interest by close of business on Tuesday if they want a redundancy package, department secretary Martin Parkinson told his 1100 staff.

Mr Parkinson, who will part company with Treasury mid next year, wrote in a memo that the department had been looking at shedding jobs for some time.

''As you are aware, the department is operating in a resource-constrained environment," Mr Parkinson wrote.

"The need to downsize the department has been on our agenda since 2011-12."

Treasury is the latest department to embrace redundancies as part of spending cuts imposed by the previous Labor government - and the Coalition's policy of axing 12,000 public service jobs has unions and opposition politicians predicting more redundancies.

Mr Parkinson told his workers a round of payouts last year had not fixed the budget problems.

''It was the intention of the board that the 2012 voluntary redundancies be a one-off process, with natural attrition and reduced recruitment allowing us to meet our 2012-13 budget,'' he told staff.

''However, since the 2012-13 budget, the Treasury's funding has been reduced by an additional $19.4 million over the forward estimates.

''To position ourselves on a path to lower resourcing in the medium term the board has decided to again offer voluntary redundancies and incentives to retire.''

According to the guide made available to workers, a long-serving executive level two employee could get a payout of $134,000, or 48 weeks' salary, on top of accrued benefits.

A junior public servant would be in line for a much smaller payout but might be able to take a job in another department within four weeks of leaving Treasury.

The department did not respond to inquiries on Monday.

Canberra Labor politicians seized on Parliamentary Budget

Office figures to keep public service cuts in the spotlight on Monday with Fraser MP and shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh warning the full impact of cuts on frontline services was not known.

''It's hard to believe the speed and severity of the cuts won't erode public services,'' Dr Leigh said

''We have already heard how Centrelink call centres, hit by staff cuts, are struggling to meet customer needs.

''This disproportionately affects low-income Australians needing tailored support.

''The savings are difficult to forecast because it relies on who leaves the APS and when.''

ACT senator Kate Lundy accused the government of a ''cloak of secrecy'' over its spending plans for the public service.

''The Abbott government seems to be operating under a cloak of secrecy,'' Senator Lundy said.

''Canberrans deserve to know how these 12,000 job cuts are going to be delivered, and what further cuts the Abbott government has in mind.''