Government Chief admits to ‘under the radar’ consultants

Wednesday 04 March 2020

The head of the public service has admitted that consultants and interims have gone under the radar with both the government, and sometimes the employees themselves, thinking they are permanent members of staff.

CEO Charlie Parker has revealed that whilst “cleaning up” the public service staffing records, it’s become apparent that some employees – originally brought on as temporary consultants – have historically bedded into the organisation as though they were permanent members of staff.

Stressing that these issues started “way before” his appointment in 2018, Mr Parker’s admissions came during a Scrutiny hearing with the OneGov Review Panel as he announced how the Government is tightening up their regulation of often highly paid consultants. 

Alongside the Chief Minister Senator John Le Fondré, Mr Parker faced questions about the Government’s use of consultants as part of the major restructure of Government departments.  

Pictured: Members of the Government were grilled by scrutineers tasked with reviewing the 'OneGov' restructuring programme.

The issue arose when Senator Le Fondré explained to the panel that when it came to consultants, the Government “are still finding anomalies that have been in the system for a long time." 

He continued: “So part of this whole transformation is still digging out things where I think processes perhaps have failed in the past and they’re now being correctly reported to us.”

This follows the Chief Minister’s recent comments that one of the Government’s most expensive supplier contracts – revealed by Express at the beginning of this year – was down to “poor record-keeping”.

Pressed on these “anomalies” by scrutineer Deputy Kirsten Morel, Mr Parker offered the following response: “So, when we’ve gone through the ‘clean up’ through the Target Operating Models and you go through the staffing lists and profiles: there have been examples where, unbeknownst to people, colleagues have been within the establishment that you think are permanent members of staff, but have actually been consultants or interims. And we have had some examples where they’ve been there literally several years. So, way before my time.

“And we have, as we’ve systematically gone through, been able to identify those anomalies. Interestingly, when it’s gone to [the States Employment Board] SEB there has been even the comment that some people from a political point of view had thought they were permanent, long-term members of staff. So that is how long some of this has been going on.”

At this point, the Chief Minister chimed in with the clarification: “We’re not saying that’s a good thing at all, but it’s a good thing that we’re finding it.” 

Mr Parker added that the States Employment Board had instructed the Government to “bring out all of your dead”, which he says they have done, “but every so often we find the gremlins and we keep having to recognise that that’s happening." 

In the meantime, Mr Parker told the panel about the ways in which the Government is tightening up the rules on bringing in consultants.

Pictured: Government CEO Charlie Parker (left) and Chief Minister Senator John Le Fondré (right) answered questions about the use of consultants.

The CEO explained that the Group Director of People and Corporate Services Mark Grimley is working on a “central record” of all staff because the Government “didn’t always know who we had on the payroll, for a variety of reasons." 

Following Deputy Morel’s successful proposition to introduce regular reporting on the use of Government consultants last year, Mr Parker said that he is making sure that a closer eye is being kept on the short-term contract staff are delivering what they were brought on to do. 

By sharpening up the “exit interviews work” and the “appraisals” process, Mr Parker thinks this will ensure the Government “have an understanding of [individual consultants’] contributions.”

He continued: “And interestingly, SEB in approving any extension to any interim, consultancy, fixed-term contract to be determined how we call it, ask for evidence of their contribution if it’s an extension.”

These measures will also be extended to larger consultancy firms by measuring the level of “skills and knowledge transfer”; whether they have made any savings or efficiencies; and whether their work allows the government “to take over from them” after their contract is up.

The CEO also committed to delivering “a bigger and better” analysis of the government’s need for consultants and spoke about a piece of work that will make sure that there isn’t already the skills inhouse to do the job before bringing in a consultant.