Nearly $700,000 paid to KMPG to find out ways to save money on advisers, according to Blacklock’s Reporter
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Red tape much?
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The feds paid almost $700,000 to consultants at KMPG to find out ways to save money on consultants, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
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The hiring of KMPG came after cabinet pledged to find $15 billion in federal savings.
In an inquiry of ministry tabled in the Commons, it was disclosed that KPMG was paid $669,650 for advice.
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The inquiry said the Department of Natural Resources hired KPMG “to develop recommendations that could be considered as options to ensure Canadians’ tax dollars are being used efficiently and being invested in the priorities that matter most to them.”
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The disclosure came after New Democrat MP Gord Johns (Courtenay–Alberni) asked: “With regard to the president of the Treasury Board’s directive to find specific cuts within the departments, were any third-party management firms contracted to assist with identifying spending cuts?”
Treasury Board president Anita Anand wrote in the inquiry: “The government is committed to responsibly managing Canadians’ tax dollars by ensuring operations and programs are effective, efficient and directed towards priorities. Savings from underutilized government spending will be shifted to priorities like health care and the clean economy.”
In its March 28 budget, cabinet said it would “reduce spending on consulting” without providing more details.
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A Jan. 30 hearing of the Commons government operations committee heard consultant spending was out of control.
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“It’s hard to tell from the publicly available data what a given contract was for,” testified Sean Boots, a senior policy adviser with the Treasury Board. “That’s especially true for management consulting firms that provide a very wide range of services to government departments. It’s hard to tell what work was involved let alone how successfully the contract turned out or not.”
Boots added the Treasury Board knew of many scenarios where consultants were hired to check the work of other consultants.
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