54% of total expenditure on consultants went on IT and project management (sic!).
Consistently relying on consultants for basic skills is expensive and repeated use suggests poor value for money" (sic!), the report said. It suggested departments "plan their recruitment and training accordingly.
I think that "consultancy" and "project management" are the most comprehensive and yet vague areas in which many a man could derive quite a substantial income, and of course not only in the UK. Recruitment and training sometimes have nothing to do with the use of consultancy and management services.
And I doubt it's ever possible to put a tight control over these goldmining areas - unless the legal and business definitions of the words "consultancy" and "project management" are reconsidered with stricter limitations. Unlikely.
Departments are often on the phone to consultants without first finding out whether their own, in-house staff, have the skills to do the job.
So familiar...
