Government consultants not 'value for money' says NAO
NAO calls for better value from consultants, and crticises government's lack of project assessment processes
The government still has some way to go before it achieves good value for
money from
consultants
, according to the
National Audit
Office .
Revealing that the government had spent £1.8bn on consultants in 2005/2006,
it found it was impossible to make an accurate judgment on the benefits of
consultants as departments ‘rarely collect any information on what has been
achieved’.
‘It can be hard to identify useful measures that are suitable for all types
of projects and attributing cause and effect is not always easy, even where
performance has improved,’ the report stated.
Consultants had helped to give great benefit in certain projects but better
value for money could be achieved. Departments had also failed to implement good
practice guidelines published in 2002 by the Committee of Public Accounts.
Better tendering processes and post-project reviews were required, according
to the report.
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