Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 10 Dec 2003

Vol. 576 No. 6

Written Answers. - Consultancy Contracts.

Eamon Gilmore

Question:

135 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Finance the total amount of expenditure on consultancy by his Department in 2000, 2001 and 2002; the numbers of consultants engaged by his Department in those years; the steps which have been taken to reduce the expenditure on consultancy and the reliance on consultants by his Department in these years and for the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30268/03]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy):

The amounts shown in the following table were spent by my Department on consultancies in 2000, 2001 and 2002. It should be noted that consultancy costs relating to the euro changeover, including expenditure on media advertising, accounted for almost half of the expenditure shown for 2000, over half of the expenditure shown for 2001 and almost a third of the expenditure for 2002.

The table also shows the number of consultancies ongoing in my Department in those years. The number shown for each year includes both consultancies begun and completed in that year and consultancies ongoing in that year that began in an earlier year.

Year	2000	2001	2002
Cost in euro	2,696,112	11,496,685	4,395,909
No. of Consultancies	27	56	55

As to the extent of expenditure on consultancies in the Department, comprehensive guidelines concerning the engagement of consultants are issued by my Department from time to time. The most recent, Engaging Consultants: Guidelines for the Civil Service, was issued in 1999. The guidelines cover such topics as deciding whether or not to engage consultants. They stress that value-for-money considerations must be paramount when deciding whether to engage consultants, that projects should be strictly necessary and that consultants should only be engaged where specialised knowledge is not available internally or in the wider civil service. Where independent advice is deemed essential as far as possible skills should be transferred to the civil servants involved. My Department complies with these guidelines.

In addition, my Department's Estimate, as with all other departmental estimates, is subject to scrutiny during the expenditure estimates process each year. My Department has delegated authority under its Administrative Budget Agreements to expend funds on consultants as it sees fit. The Department is obliged, under the same agreement, to seek sanction for any consultancy project costing in excess of the EUs requirement to advertise in its Official Journal.

Finally, my Department, like all other Departments, is obliged to submit for approval to the IT Control Unit a detailed statement of IT-related expenditure, including external IT – related costs, and a statement of strategies for the management of IT applications and infrastructure.