PAC slams spending on consultants

21 Jun 07
Whitehall departments were this week accused of 'sheer profligacy' over their use of consultants.

22 June 2007

Whitehall departments were this week accused of 'sheer profligacy' over their use of consultants.

The Commons' Public Accounts Committee said central government alone was paying out almost £2bn each year without checking whether in-house staff had the skills.

Committee chair Edward Leigh said: 'It is impossible to believe that the public are receiving full value for money from this expenditure. In fact, a good proportion of it looks like sheer profligacy.'

Departments and the Office of Government Commerce were also castigated for failing to keep an account of how much was spent on consultancy and therefore whether the benefits justified the costs.

'Consultants are often paid on the basis of the amount of time worked and not on what the work achieved,' Leigh said. 'The consultancy firms are truly on to a good thing.'

But an OGC spokesman said: 'When the government is leading major reform of the public sector, it is only right that external expertise is brought in on a case-by-case basis.'

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