Nearly £1,000 per person in Guernsey has been spent by the States on consultants in the past five years, with most of the money going out of the island.
Policy & Resources revealed the figures following formal parliamentary questions from Deputy David Goy, and just hours after senior politicians pledged to cut back on the use of consultants.
£63m has been spent since 2020 on business advice and IT, largely to the States’ former IT services partner Agilisys.
Nearly £14m was spent on research, while the remaining amount went to legal, employment and finance advice.
The overall consultancy spend increased by over 60% from 2021 to 2024.
P&R said the costs included consultancy firms but also teams supporting projects and business as usual operations such as managers and analysts.
Deputy Goy also requested the names of consultants, where they are located, an itemised list of what they were paid for, and whether the work has been completed.
But the States declined to go into detail on several grounds, and because some of the information is not easily obtainable and would require a disproportionate amount of staff time.
The States insisted that consultants are used where in-house skills are lacking and assured that it’s sometimes financially prudent to do so.
“Policies are in place to ensure that where consultants are engaged the States secures effective value for money in their use.”
P&R said information is published in annual accounts and in relevant policy documents to demonstrate where external expertise had been used.
But it can’t all be published due to commercial sensitivity, the impact on critical services and data protection and confidentiality concerns.
“Payments will only be authorised when officers are satisfied that the States of Guernsey have received the contracted service to the standard expected.”
Deputy Goy said “the public deserves greater transparency on public spending.
“Unfortunately, based on the response I received, it looks like we are not going to get it.”
P&R said it “has already challenged the need for specific engagements where it has been satisfied that satisfactory internal expertise or evidence exists to enable a sufficiently informed decision and will continue to do so”.
This will be realised through “a renewed emphasis on internal problem-solving rather than relying on external consultants to validate known issues”.