Construction of my argument

I’m interested in the possibly excessive expenditure by the public sector on consultancy services, and what accountability exists for this expenditure.

Possible cause of the problem

• Confusion of accountabilities
• Enthusiastically self-marketing consultant
• Needs,which may be people, perspective, process and perhaps political

How does public procurement of external consultants affect various stakeholders? I think it must demotivate some employees, particularly those that are further from the consultancy selection process, it may annoy some other stakeholders such as unions, but on the other hand it gives new skills to those employees (managers) higher up the management career path and those who are closer to the choice to use consultants. Secondly, it gets a job done that otherwise would not be done quickly or effectively or at all.

Consequences

I deduce that the consultancy market will continue to grow, that the public sector will continue to purchase consultancy services and that there will be two classes of workers involved:

1. Public servants who cannot do what consultants do
   
2. Consultants who have specialised skills

And this division will be self-perpetuating. So in order to justify the division, there is a need to discover evidence of lines of accountability amongst those who select and use consultants, identifying accountors and accoutees.