Carr Caught On Consultancy Cost
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday June 19, 2002
Eschewing profligacy is akin to battling some resilient cancers. It can be subdued into remission but the war is never won. So it was with Labor's 1994 election promise to cap spending on consultants at $50 million a year. After two years, the Carr Government declared mission accomplished. Figures later this year are expected to show the Carr Government is so generous with consultants that average annual expenditure over its seven years has exceeded $100 million. The vigour of the pursuit, so amplified in Opposition, has dissipated. Now comes a gentle note from the Premier, Bob Carr, warning bureaucrats off costly consultants, who advise on anything from marketing and public relations to technology, water treatment and structural change in the electricity industry. The Premier's office would have the public believe Mr Carr's memo was merely a reminder. ``The Government regards transparency in the use of consultants as essential and encourages agencies to define the type and nature of consultancy engaged," a spokesman said. ``It also points out to agencies that they should carefully assess the need to engage a consultant."
Really? First, the attachment to transparency. Government agencies are required to list consultancies in annual reports but these can be hidden in contracts and, anyway, innovative departmental managers are adept at accounting for consultancies by other names. If the Government was truly committed to transparency, it would maintain the rage against excessive consultancy. Instead, it tiptoes in the hope voters have forgotten the $50 million annual cap. Second, the engagement of consultants according to need. Unquestionably, governments confront complex and expensive problems best dealt with by the best in often narrow specialised fields. By necessity, such expertise may have to be temporarily recruited. That can be cost-effective public service. But is spending $41,000 on two consultants to ``brainstorm" a new departmental corporate logo or an alcohol and drug program in which the consultant received more than half of the $35,000 grant? Too many of the hundreds of consultancies engaged belong to the latter category.
Mr Carr's memo is motivated by political ends, not administrative. He knows the sums are poor against his past rhetoric. He wants to project a pre-emptive strike so he can say he's attending to the problem when later challenged about new figures. Those who benefit by loud protests about others' waste, however, should be punished for their own.
© 2002 Sydney Morning Herald