TRANSPORT FOR WALES SPENDS £14.2 MILLION ON 40 CONSULTANTS.

WELSH LABOUR GOVERNMENT-OWNED TFW SPENDS £14.2 MILLION ON 40 CONSULTANTS
On 21 February 2013, BBC Wales reported The public sector ‘could save £23m on consultants fees’ so lessens learnt there then
Commenting on the investigation, Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Transport, Natasha Asghar MS said:
“Labour Government-owned Transport for Wales has wasted an astounding amount of money on 40 consultancy firms, including an HR company, Management Consultancies and several IT Consultancies. What is particularly concerning is that only six companies used were Welsh, taking much-needed jobs out of Wales and money out of the Welsh economy.
“With proportions of the wasted money being spent on companies offering consultation on ‘delivering your project on time and to budget’ we can see that this has been a clear waste of money, considering the South Wales Metro project is behind and extortionately over budget.
“The cost of the project is already spiralling out of control, we can only hope that recuperation costs are not eventually passed onto customers with inflated ticket pricing.”
The Auditor General for Wales, Huw Vaughan Thomas, 2013
Welsh public bodies are spending less on consultants but cannot demonstrate value for money in how they plan, obtain and manage consultancy services, says a report published today by the Auditor General.
Public bodies spent £133 million on consultants in 2010-11, £40 million less than in 2007-08. All sectors – local government, health and the Welsh Government – recorded significant drops in spending. But despite these reductions very few public bodies were able to demonstrate that their expenditure represented good value for money. This is largely due to inadequate data, insufficient collaboration and a failure to adopt widely accepted good practice.
Adopting good practice in procuring and managing consultancy services can help public bodies achieve better value for money, and today’s report identifies potential efficiency savings of more than £23 million if all public bodies were to follow good practice. However, few public bodies routinely collect and analyse data to assist in obtaining and using consultancy services more efficiently, and the data on expenditure is often unreliable. The report also found that:
- there is scope for more collaboration between public bodies;
- business cases were not widely used and, where they were used, they often left out key information such as estimated costs and benefits;
- public bodies rarely consider alternatives to consultants, including using internal staff instead of consultants; and
- there is considerable scope to improve the management of contracts, including the monitoring and evaluation of consultant performance.