OZschwitz: Vacuous PM blows $400m on useless consultancy bills

THE Federal Opposition has accused the Government of splashing out at least $400million on consultants last year - despite promising to slash spending by $100million a year.

At the same time, the Government has axed 3000 jobs from the public sector and may be gearing up for more in the May budget.

A survey of 21 big government departments revealed that contracts worth $414million were awarded for consultancies in management, media, legal and other services last year.

Before the November 2007 election, Labor pledged to slash the "wasteful spending" of the Howard government by slicing $395million from consultancy bills over four years.

"Complacency and lack of discipline by the Howard government has allowed unnecessary spending to flourish," Labor's then finance spokesman, Lindsay Tanner, said in March 2007.

And the trend will continue: $11million has been budgeted to be spent by the end of the financial year on consultants advising the Government on the troubled national broadband network.

Now the Finance Minister, Mr Tanner disputed the figures: "The Rudd Government has significantly reduced available funding for use on consultancies by increasing the efficiency dividend. The figures quoted by the Liberal Party are completely inaccurate because they include contracts extending beyond one year."

The Opposition rejected this, saying nearly all contracts were awarded and completed last year.

The shadow special minister of state, Senator Michael Ronaldson, said the consultancy spending proved Labor could not manage money. The Community and Public Sector Union is planning a media campaign warning the Government against further job cuts and the increased use of external consultants for policy work.

"It is the union's view that consultants deliver less, cost more and lack the experience and objectivity of a professional and independent public service," its national secretary, Stephen Jones, said.

"The increased use of contractors and outsourcing reduces the capacity to research and develop policy, diminishes the corporate knowledge of the public service and makes the task of maintaining effective oversight and accountability more difficult."

Mr Jones said that public servants were bound by a strict code of ethics that did not apply to large consulting houses, which were driven by increasing their own income.

LNK

OZschwitz: Vacuous PM blows $400m on useless consultancy bills

OZschwitz: Vacuous PM blows $400m on useless consultancy bills

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

AnCaps On Realpolitik, Statism & Bureaucracy