NEWS | Wednesday, 24 December 2008

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Helena Dalli slams government’s ‘generosity’ with its consultants

Labour’s main spokesperson for the public sector and public investments Helena Dalli said the latest report by the Auditor-General confirmed that the government was being wasteful with public money, especially in the engagement of its consultants.
In a statement published yesterday, Dalli said it was shameful to see that in sectors of the public sector, government did not find it shameful to spend recklessly, while claiming it didn’t have enough money for essential items like medicines.
Dalli said that the last report published by the Auditor-General was another clear demonstration of how the government was being ‘generous’ with public funds when it deemed so.
The report also mentioned how certain government consultants were being paid more than the amount stipulated in their respective contracts. “Moreover, the manner in which these consultants were employed was definitely not serious and transparent,” Dalli insisted.
She said there were cases where consultants were employed without any terms of reference, therefore these consultants cannot be held accountable for their work.
The Auditor-General also highlighted the fact that after having engaged these consultants, ministers did not monitor their work. “In certain cases, they were not giving out the value of the money that they were being paid. And nobody was drawing their attention to this,” Dalli explained.
Moreover, the Labour MP said that the Auditor-General noted that the public sector’s top management was not in a position to know the number of hours that these consultants were actually working.
Dalli said that the fact that certain ministries did not even answer to the questionnaire sent by the Auditor-General to examine the manner in which consultants worked in the respective ministries was a demonstration of the government’s “sheer arrogance”
Dalli explained that in certain cases, the consultants’ contracts were not even sent to the Auditor-General’s office as requested.
She explained that out of those contracts that were sent to the Auditor-General, some of them did not even have a date on them, while in others, the name of the contract did not match with the name of the consultant.
“It is shameful how the government continues not giving an account of how public money are being spent without any transparency nor accountability, while at the same time continue to be parsimonious with the public in serious matters such as the payment on medicines,” Dalli insisted.
The annual report by the National Audit Office found an increase in ad hoc consultants and advisors appointed with various ministers, without being backed up by proper contracts.
According to the report, in 2007 there were 43 consultants employed on a part-time basis with 11 ministries. From the 24 out of 38 contracts surveyed (63%), it was noted that duties were not specified in detail in the contracts, which the NAO said would not render the ministry able to hold the consultant directly accountable.
And payments to six consultants included amounts in excess of those specified in their contracts. Extra payments were made related to bonuses and weekly allowances, cost of living allowance and other allowances.

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