MORE than £11.6 million of taxpayers’ money is currently being spent on consultants employed by the government.
The astonishing figure was revealed by Chief Minister Allan Bell in a lengthy written reply to a Tynwald question from Speaker Steve Rodan.
In his reply, Mr Bell pointed out that the costs should be put in context of the government’s budgeted net revenue spending for the current financial year of £533 million.
But, as Mr Rodan pointed out, the figure could be higher still as the definition of consulting used in the answer was a narrow one that referred only to individuals or companies engaged on time-limited specific projects – and did not include the buying in of professional services on an ongoing basis or the outsourcing of frontline services to outside companies.
Mr Rodan said he was surprised at the range and extend of consultants – 85 of which were from off-island – and questioned whether all could be justified.
Mr Bell said in his reply: ‘Where specialist expertise is required it is often more cost-effective to engage professional consultants on a contract basis rather than taking on additional permanent staff.
‘It should also be pointed out that some consultants, in the field of public service pensions reform, for example, are supporting major changes that will result in significant long-term savings for the taxpayer.’
Just under 200 ongoing contracts are detailed in the reply, which extends over 25 pages. More than 50 are connected with the design of school extension and improvement projects and a further 10 are linked to regeneration schemes in Douglas and Ramsey. Some £647,000 has been spent on consultants for the regional sewage treatment strategy.
The biggest figure listed is £3.2 million for engaging consultants from Hymans Robertson to devise the proposed unified pension scheme for government employees.
A sum of £10,829 was spent by the Department of Community Culture and Leisure to carry out stress calculations on new steam locomotive boilers and £19,285 will be billed to the Department of Infrastructure for a parking study in Peel town centre.
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