'No vision for the future': Opposition slams Gunner over increased consultancy contracts

‘No vision for the future’: Opposition slams Gunner over increased consultancy contracts

by | Sep 18, 2020 | NT Politics | 1 comment

The Gunner Government has shown it has no vision for the future of the Northern Territory by relying on external consultancy contracts to help run the public service and develop programs, the Opposition says.

The NT Independent revealed on Thursday that the NT Government charged taxpayers $121 million over the last three financial years for private consultancy firms to undertake a range of jobs for the government including developing business cases for the Department of Business, developing housing programs for the Department of Housing and providing economic advice to Treasury shortly after the financial crisis was revealed.

The use of consultancy contracts spiked in the last financial year, jumping 65 per cent from the previous year’s total of $33 million to $55 million, while public service employment figures continue to grow.

CLP Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said the government was outsourcing its responsibilities.

“Spending on consultants has increased exponentially under the Gunner Government, which is no surprise given it has repeatedly outsourced its responsibility to govern,” she said.

“Most recently it outsourced its responsibilities to grow the economy to the Territory Reconstruction Commission.

“By doing so, the Gunner Government acknowledges that they have no ideas and are devoid of any plan for the Territory’s future.”

Consultancy contracts adding to NT’s record net debt

According to government documents, millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on consultancy contracts ranging from developing “masterplans” to organising departmental outreach programs to restructuring government programs and then managing them.

Political analyst Ken Parish previously said using private firms to conduct government business that public servants could do would end up costing the NT more money as it stares down its record net debt of a projected $8.2 billion.

“On the face of it, this looks like yet another example of serious waste on the part of the Northern Territory Labor Government,” he said.

The Langoulant Budget Repair report was mysteriously void of any reference to specific recommendations around consultancy contracts, but did suggest that contracts should also be subject to “efficiency dividends” in the public service.

Mr Parish said the government’s out of control spending would continue to be a problem, unless the Federal Government intervened.

“If the Federal Government allows them to keep getting away with running a huge structural deficit and does nothing about it, well, I suppose there’s no incentive for Michael Gunner to govern responsibly and have a responsible budget,” he said.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s office did not answer questions over the increased use of consultancy contracts while the public service expands or if they had any plans to reign in the contract spending.

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1 Comment

  1. Amazing what bad news comes out just after the Election!!

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