Consultancy Contracts

Thursday, 6 October 2011

Questions (80)

Eoghan Murphy

Question:

80 Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the amount he intends to spend on consultancy fees in 2011, in particular those contracted to identify value for money in his Department. [28406/11]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Deputy Brendan Howlin)

The 2011 Estimate for my Vote includes the following provision for consultancy expenditure:

	€
Administrative Budget	€7k
Programme Consultancy Costs	€75k

At this point I do not envisage that the full allocation will be required but the final requirement cannot be predicted with reasonable certainty.

I do not envisage that any of this provision will be attributed to contracts to identify value for money in my Department.

The following table contains the relevant information in relation to the bodies under the aegis of my Department:

Agency, Body, Office	Detail
Office of Public Works	The estimate in administration subheads for consultancy fees and value for money on Vote 10 for OPW in 2011 is €54,000. Of this amount €33,000 relates to Value for Money and Policy Review consultancy contracts.Additional Information:In the course of its normal business activity, the Office of Public Works engages technical consultants on many of its projects, primarily architectural and engineering. The costs of these consultancies would be included in the overall project.
State Laboratory	The State Laboratory intends to spend €12,000 on consultancy fees in 2011. This spend relates to Internal Audit services only.
Commission for Public Service Appointments	The Estimate for 2011 includes a provision for Consultancy spend of €158,000. To date in 2011 total spend amounts to €25,000 and it is not envisaged that the full amount of the provision will be required to the end of the year. None of this is attributable to contracts related to identifying value for money.
Public Appointments Service	Nil spend on consultancy in 2011.
Valuation Office	The Valuation Office envisages spending €70,000 approximately on consultancies in 2011. None of the consultancies are specifically geared towards the identification of value for money.
Office of the Ombudsman	Total consultancy expenditure for 2011 will be approximately €75,000. None of the consultancies are specifically geared towards the identification of value for money.