Government use of consultants is inefficient, warns Audit Scotland

15 Jan 09
A public spending watchdog has criticised central government bodies in Scotland over the employment of consultants, arguing that they could achieve better value for money with improved planning and management

16 January 2009

By David Scott in Edinburgh

A public spending watchdog has criticised central government bodies in Scotland over the employment of consultants, arguing that they could achieve better value for money with improved planning and management.

In a report published on January 15, Audit Scotland said central government did not have a clear strategy for its use of consultants for financial and workforce plans.

Central government bodies spent around £114m a year on consultancy services but better planning and purchasing would save up to £13m a year, Audit Scotland estimated.

The report, Central government’s use of consultancy services, pointed out that public sector bodies could use consultants’ knowledge, skills and resources to help provide new services and initiatives quickly and expertly.

However, it warned that, if not well managed, consultants could be an expensive way to improve services while also limiting the opportunity for public servants to use existing skills or gain new ones.

Auditor general Bob Black said: ‘Bodies should consider when it is better to use their own staff, and how best to ensure public servants learn from consultants when they are hired for projects or in advisory roles.’

According to Audit Scotland, central government had not collected or shared enough information on which consultancy skills or knowledge it was buying and why.

This made it difficult to plan future spending on consultancy services and get the right balance between using consultants and staff, the report stated.

It said consultants were used most often because staff did not have the skills or expertise needed.

Other reasons included: getting the work done quickly; getting an outside perspective; because staff were too busy; and completing work to a higher standard than might otherwise be achieved.

The watchdog found that 5% of the projects it surveyed could have been completed without consultants and with little risk to the outcome. The report added: ‘This reinforces the need for public bodies to combine plans for using consultants with their workforce plans.’

PFjan2009

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top