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Department of Finance pays £10m for '£1m contract' | Department of Finance pays £10m for '£1m contract' |
(about 2 hours later) | |
The Department of Finance ended up paying IT consultants 10 times the initial cost for a one-off project, it has emerged. | |
In its latest href="http://www.niauditoffice.gov.uk/pubs/2011/externalconsultants/8942%20Consultants%20final.pdf" title="audit office report" >report the NI Audit Office found there were cost over-runs in 40% of the consultants contracts it examined. | |
It also found that out of 86 contracts it examined, 16 had not been competitively tendered. | |
This was in breach of civil services rules and guidance for good practice. | |
In one case, the Department of Finance, which is tasked with reducing waste, paid nearly £10m for an IT system that was supposed to cost just under £1m. | |
In 2008, the Audit Office reported that the use of external consultants had doubled over a five year period. | |
The amount spent on consultants peaked at £42m in the financial year 2006/7 but fell to nearly £20m in 2009/10. | |
The Audit Office has recommended that the public service should make business cases for future use of external consultants |