Don't shoot the advisor

In the August copy of Management Today, Richard Reeves wrote this. He argues that it's up to the public-sector officials to make sure consultants' advice is of high quality. There's a balance needed between the cost of permanently hiring or training specialists that the service might need for only a few months, and bringing in the external expertise, but consultancies are profit making businesses, and must make money to survive. I like Reeves metaphor:
"If the public sector is handing out sweets, they can hardly be blamed for the resulting sugar high."
However, he does also accuse civil servants and politicians of deifying those in the private sector, and I don't know what evidence he has for that. It is not what I'm hearing from my interviewees. What I am hearing is that consultants earn their money by:

• providing expertise that is not in-house,
  
• moving organisations that wouldn't otherwise be moved and
  
• saving the organisation more than they cost.

And if the lines and mechanisms of accountability are in place, then there won't be many undeserved sweets.