A Conservative Government will "out" quangocrats and mandarins who have been "getting rich at the taxpayer's expense" by publishing details of all public sector salaries over £150,000, party leader David Cameron promised.
The move forms part of a People's Right to Know plan which will also see details of all Government spending over £25,000 published on the internet in what Mr Cameron described as "a democratic check on wasteful spending".
The plan was unveiled as the Tory leader pledged to lead a "government of thrift" in which ministers will face the sack if they fail to "deliver more for less".
He blasted a "spendaholic" Government for wasting billions of taxpayers' money and said the coming election must bring about a "complete change of direction" for Britain after 13 years of Labour rule which have ended in recession and the inauguration of an "age of austerity".
Voters were "sick of Labour's cynicism, sick of their incompetence, sick of their irresponsibility", he said in his keynote speech to the Conservative Spring Forum in Cheltenham.
In a sober assessment of the task facing the victors of the next election, Mr Cameron acknowledged that an incoming Tory administration will have to take "some incredibly tough decisions on taxation, spending and borrowing" to bring down national debt.
And he hinted that he will not shy away from tax increases to bring debt under control, recalling his time as a Treasury adviser 15 years ago under John Major's administration.
"We had to put up taxes and I hated it," he said. "But it was the right thing to do and that lesson has stayed with me."
He dismissed the 50p income tax rate on high earners announced in Chancellor Alistair Darling's Budget last week as a "cynical trick" designed to distract attention from Labour's £175 billion deficit, but gave no indication of any intention to scrap it.
Mr Cameron warned activists that the consequences of the recession will stretch over such a long timeframe that "we may not see the full fruits of our labours in the lifetime of our government".
