Northern Ireland Executive’s consultancy fees soar

The Northern Ireland Department for Social Development has revealed that they have spent just under three quarters of a million pounds on consultancy reports.

The figures were produced by Stormont Social Development minister Maurice Morrow in response to a question by Monica McWilliams of the Women’s Coalition.

Ms McWilliams expressed alarm at the high cost - £843,480 – and the closed nature of the studies, only two of which have been published.

She said: “A large amount of money is being spent on keeping a lot of knowledge internal to the department. It is my belief that you need a good reason for not publishing research when it is commissioned by public money.”

One of the 39 studies commissioned by the government department in the year 2000-1 was aimed at advising the Social Security Agency about the implementation of its Welfare Reform and Modernisation Programme and alone cost £228,000. Another report on the West Belfast Festival cost £21,500.

South Belfast Assembly member M McWilliams who is a University Lecturer Professor of Women's Studies and Social Policy at University of Ulster said: “Some of the projects are evaluated to death. There’s more money spent on some of the evaluations than there was on the activities themselves. There is also the question of why these reports ate being commissioned. Surely we have enough civil servants to do this work themselves. I have great concerns about the use of consultancy firms, especially by a department dealing with poverty.” (AMcE)