The warnings from the recent Commission of Audit have rung out loud and clear through media channels, but the potentially huge public sector cuts are getting a bit less press.

Many government workers will already be aware of the auditors’ suggestions, which say 15,000 to 25,000 public services sector jobs could be cut.

The deep excision of employment could decimate the Canberra region’s economy, notwithstanding the potential ramifications for service delivery nationwide.

But the commission’s report contains some recommendations for government structure and functions that public servants may not want to ignore.

Auditors say extraneous boards, committees and councils should be the first to feel the razor’s edge.

Bringing together lesser proliferation of small agencies into large departments like Health and Education may improve services will reducing costs too.

Other reasonable suggestions include a number of technological improvements; sharing corporate services, useful e-government outlets, ‘big data’ analysis to identify advantage, and bringing grants and administration platforms into the internet-based era.

Insiders say that new technology, department mergers, refurbishment, sorting old leases and dead rent – will all cost money, and potential miss the outcome they target by turning workers against their savings-hungry bosses.

Some of those bosses may change soon though, with federal service privatisation looking like a major player in the no-holds-barred sprint to surplus.

The Commonwealth may divest itself of its remaining 13 per cent stake in Snowy Hydro, dismantle Austrade, merge the Defence Materiel Organisation into Defence and combine Customs and Immigration.

The entire country waits to see what waits for them in budget, to be unveiled next Tuesday.