The government is paying IT and management consultants more than £2,000 a day, according to a Mail on Sunday story.
The report claims that an “army of government advisers” is costing the tax-payer about £2bn a year, despite a catalogue of costly high-profile project failures, including computer failures at Revenue and Customs.
The newspaper claims that internal Whitehall figures, compiled by the Office of Government Commerce, show that between April and December 2004, the goverment was paying IT specialists £2,258 a day – up to £500,000 each a year.
Alex Flynn of the Public and Commercial Services Union told the newspaper: “It does beggar belief that the government is trying to make savings in the name of efficiency but at the same time they’re prepared to bring in consultants paid in excess of £2,000 a day.”
