Between the election of the Abbott government at the beginning of the 2013-14 financial year and defeat of the Morrison government at the end of the 2021-22 financial year, spending on six of the largest consulting firms alone increased from $264.5 million to a peak of $1.706 billion – an increase of 545 per cent (see Figure 1). [...] 9 Ethics and Professional Accountability: Structural Challenges in the Audit, Assurance and Consultancy Industry Submission 7 THE MCKELL INSTITUTE The recent Commonwealth government audit of employment reveals the extent to which consultancy firms, and private contractors more generally, have become a crucial part of the day-to-day functioning of government. [...] Similar non-binding guidelines exist in Queensland,36 and administratively binding guidelines exist in Victoria – though the only obligation imposed is that the relevant agency head must write to the Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.37 Particularly as the Commonwealth re-emerges from a period of extreme spending and overreliance on external consultants, proposed Commonwealth guid. [...] Only $10.9 million of the Fund was allocated for the creation of an ‘in-house consulting service within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet that can deliver high-quality strategic consulting services to the APS’.38 Again, within the context of recent savings through cutting spending on external labour, this figure should be greatly increased. [...] Alan Barton has noted, ‘[p]ublicly available information and acceptance by government of the responsibility for accountability are … the lubricants which enable the democratic system to function successfully over the long term’.45 On the use of exemptions, Barton concluded: [T]he use of [commercial-in-confidence exemptions] undermines the operation of a democratic government through imposing a vei.
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- Australia
