Billions spent on consultants have created a “shadow public service” unaccountable to taxpayers, a union executive yesterday told the House of Commons government operations committee. Federal departments and agencies spend $16.7 billion a year on consultants, according to a Treasury Board estimate..“Unchecked spending on government outsourcing by various governments has created a shadow public service of consultants and temporary staff operating alongside the government workforce,” testified Jennifer Carr, president of the 72,000-member Professional Institute of the Public Service. “This shadow public service plays by an entirely different set of rules.”.“We have seen the government over-rely on costly outsourcing,” said Carr. “McKinsey is just one of the latest examples.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, McKinsey & Company, a global consulting firm, in the past five years received $91.8 million in known federal contracts. Fees were paid as McKinsey shareholder and former managing director Dominic Barton served as an advisor to the Department of Finance and Canadian ambassador to China..“The contracts awarded to McKinsey are not only unnecessary given the dubious relevance and quality of advice they provided, they are actually the tip of the iceberg,” said Professional Institute President Carr. “While the present government is rightfully facing criticism on this issue, it is not a new problem.”.Sean Boots, a senior policy advisor with the Treasury Board, testified so many contracts have been awarded to private consultants it is difficult for taxpayers to scrutinize spending. “It’s hard to tell from the publicly available data what a given contract was for,” said Boots. “That’s especially true for management consulting firms that provide a very wide range of services to government departments.”.“It’s hard to tell what work was involved let alone how successfully the contract turned out or not,” said Boots. He added that the Treasury Board knew of numerous cases where consultants were hired to check the work of other consultants..“Especially for large IT projects, one management consulting firm might be hired to oversee the work of another management consulting firm,” said Boots, adding: “That can lead to a set of dynamics where each firm is not necessarily motivated to hold the other to account given their positions will likely be reversed on other future projects.”.“This reliance on management consultants becomes a self-reinforcing cycle,” said Boots. Committee members noted spending on consultants grew even as the number of government employees in “core administration” grew from 195,565 in 2015 to 254,309 last year, a 30 percent increase according to the Treasury Board.
