Quick Read
- In short: Victoria’s Auditor-General has found government spending on consultants and contractors rose to $4.2 billion in the 2021-22 financial year, representing a 50 per cent jump over four years.
- The report also found much of the money is being spent with limited transparency, with the majority of payments going undeclared.
The Victorian government has spent more than $800 million on consultants in the past six years, with 50 per cent of it going to just five firms, the state Auditor-General has found.
The “big four” professional services firms — KPMG, Deloitte, EY, PwC — along with Boston Consulting Group netted $434 million over the period.
The Auditor-General’s report also found the government’s spending on consultants and contractors combined ballooned to $4.2 billion in the 2021-22 financial year.
It represents a 50 per cent increase in Victoria’s outlay on consultants and contractors over four years, despite the Andrews government’s election pledge in 2018 to cut back spending.
The report tabled in Victorian Parliament today found much of the money is being spent under a shroud of secrecy, with the majority of payments going undeclared.
Under legislation, Victorian government departments need to detail any consultants they engage, but not contractors.
The Auditor-General found Victorian outlay on consultants alone decreased slightly last year, from a five- year high of $167 million in 2021-22 to $150 million in 2022-23.
KPMG made the most from Victorian taxpayers, earning almost 20 per cent of the six-year spend on consultants, and $22.5 million last financial year alone.
Earlier this year, the ABC’s Four Corners program investigated KPMG over its alleged overbilling of the Federal Defence department, claims it strenuously denies.
Scandal-plagued PwC made $11 million from the state government last financial year — down from $17.8 million the year before.
EY — which was behind the business case for Victoria’s cancelled Commonwealth Games — received $18 million for all its government consultancy work in 2021/22.
The firm has previously refused to say how much it was paid to produce the business case in January 2022.
