asked the Minister for Education if he will give details of the expenditure of £110,000 on consultancy services in 1985; the names of the consultants employed; the number of consultants; the way in which they were recruited; and the number of tenders received for this work.
Written Answers. - Consultancy Services.
168.
Details of expenditure on consultancy services in 1985 are as follows:
|
Amount |
Firm |
Work Area |
|
£69,527.32(incl. VAT and expenses) |
System Dynamics Ltd. |
Computerisation of the Certificate Examinations. |
|
£30,000 |
Touche Ross & Co. |
National Lottery Study. |
A saving of £10,472.68 was made on the subhead allocation of £110,000. In each case, the resources of the individual companies were recruited and a range of operatives from these made inputs as appropriate throughout the project.
The consultants were employed in accordance with the "Code of Practice for Government Departments — Employing Management Consultants" issued by the Department of the Public Service. In the case of the computerisation of the certificate examinations project, nine proposals were invited and eight were received. In respect of the National Lottery study, six were invited and five were received.
169.
asked the Minister for Education the reason an increase of 60 per cent is being estimated for consultancy services in his Department for 1986; and the way in which additional £190,000 will be spent.
The revised Estimates for 1986, which will be published shortly, will show that the allocation in respect of consultancy services for 1986 is £250,000, an increase of 151.19 per cent over the outturn of 1985, which was £99,527.32.
It is intended that this allocation will be spent on further phases of the project for the computerisation of the certificate examinations and on the development of a schools information system in my Department.