back to article Government slashes consultancy spending

Public sector spending on consultants fell sharply last year, according to a report from the Management Consultancies Association (MCA). It says that in 2010 the public sector spent 15 per cent less on consultants than it had in the previous year – although the MCA declined to disclose the total, saying it was confidential to …

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  1. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    "We need to cut down on consultants!"

    "Good idea, let's hold a consultation on how to do it..."

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yes but...

    The problem is, that when you deskill the workforce, like HMRC have done by replacing all their highly trained tax inspectors with a couple of call centres and some scripts, when it doesn't work because you have made all the people who knew how things were meant to operate (and more importantly, why), redundant, then there is then little choice but to pay bucket loads of dosh to those same experts or to others as consultants.

    Looks great in the short term though until someone finds out it is cheap but not working.

  3. Code Monkey

    Not all cuts are bad

    Here's a spending cut we can all support.

  4. LPF
    Thumb Down

    @AC 14:57 GMT

    What are you wittering on about? the consultants we are talking about are the 800 a day paper generators not some talk driod in bangalore, are you being delibrately stupid?

    1. DavCrav

      My guess

      I think what the AC was trying to say was:

      Step 1: Fire all the people on high wages, and replace them with call centre monkeys.

      Step 2: Profit!!!

      Step 3: The expensive people did something useful, which we are now having to pay the private sector for.

      Step 4: Loss!!!

  5. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    Would'nt you love to know project in Education is *growing* its use of con-sultants?

    I'll take a wild stab at Building Schools for the Future.

    Possibly (although I somehow doubt it) the last of the NuLabor juggernaut programmes that won't f**king die.

    I hope some AC will drop a few hints on this.

    Otherwise thumbs up. I think *anything* which weans government off it's con-sultancy dependence is a good idea.

    Perhaps it's time governments (not just int the UK) realised managing *large* chunks of data *is* a core activity and should *not* be knocked out to smooth talking ex-PSB in a suit with a plausible line in complete b***ocks.

  6. Trey Pattillo
    Megaphone

    What is a consultant?

    Consultant:

    Someone you pay to look at your watch and tell you what time it is.

    Lobbyist:

    Someone you pay to defend you from the people you elected to protect you.

  7. Fred Flintstone Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    It's not a decline..

    .. it's getting back to levels as they should be.

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