Rules for consultants - Expensive lesson forces State to act

Consultants will never be a thing of the past, despite new rules announced by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday claiming to avoid another repetition of the PPARS payroll fiasco in the health service.

Ironically, it came amidst further criticism from the opposition about another €3 million wasted on another project.

An escape clause has been left whereby government departments will be entitled to call in external expertise from the private sector and internationally, where it is deemed necessary.

The Government statement referred specifically to computer projects, but also included general consultants who are routinely employed in other areas, something admitted by Tánaiste Mary Harney last week to be the norm.

It would appear that the expensive lesson that is PPARS and FISP, collectively costing taxpayers about €180 million, and the subsequent public outrage, has forced the Government to concede the abuses involved. The new rules announced involve a cross-departmental team of senior civil servants, with a track record of bringing IT projects in on time and on budget, overseeing existing and new major projects. Essentially, that is an admission that residing within departments was an experienced staff with the acumen to deal with substantial projects but who were ignored for wildly expensive outside consultants. Despite the aspiration expressed for tighter controls, ministers will still be able to employ consultants in their departments by the device of confirming that they are necessary and in time for inclusion in next year’s Estimates.

If they adhere to their own new rules, the Government is merely expressing the intent to apply measures which the public would have expected were in place anyway, and which would be considered basic good practice in any efficiently run business, large or small.

Belatedly, the review process will apply at various stages over the life cycle of the project, to ensure that it can progress successfully to the next stage, and to gain more realistic time and cost targets. The system introduced within the Health Services Executive is a classic case of where this commonsense approach was utterly ignored with disastrous consequences.

Logically, the Department of Finance will review existing guidelines on the commissioning and management of consultancies to ensure best practice is followed. Computers were not the only area where the taxpayers money was wasted for the lack of a more sensible and practical approach.

As illustrated in the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General this year, and every other year, the waste of public money happens across all government departments. If, as it now appears, that the Government has been converted to prudence it should apply it equally to all areas of spending.