Simon Power National Party Law & Order Spokesman

30 April 2006

Corrections hires more staff but spends $31m on consultants

The Corrections Department spent $31.7 million on consultants over the same period that it was increasing its staff by 19%, says National's Law & Order spokesman, Simon Power.

He has produced figures released under the Official Information Act that show that between 2001/02 and 2004/05, Corrections spent $31.7 million on consultants while its staff grew from 4,277 to 5,111.

The figures also reveal that the top three consultants were multi-national companies, with the fourth highest earner being the company owned by the department’s former prisons assistant general manager, John Hamilton.

“This is a department that continues to run out of control,” says Mr Power.

“Not content with blowing its prisons construction budget by $490 million, we now find that all through that period it was not only increasing staff but it was not holding back on hiring outside consultants.

“If there are more staff at Corrections why are they spending $31 million of taxpayers’ money on consultants?

“Not only is the internal bureaucracy at Corrections increasing at a rapid rate, it is obviously not being used effectively when they have to spend that much money on consultants.

"The sheer amount of money going into consultancy payments for dubious things such as 'audit of food' and 'recall process training' will give the public no reassurance at all that this department and its Minister know what they are doing," says Mr Power.

Corrections Department staffing

Year Full-time equivalents Spend on consultants

2001/02 4,277 $7,080,758
2002/03 4,362 $8,370,841
2003/04 4,611 $5,675,102
2004/05 5,111 $10,660,988

Top 10 consultants 2001/02 - 2004/05

1. $3,332,588 Deloitte Consulting NZ/Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
2. $3,255,993 Opus Consulting
3. $1,822,173 SAP (computer tech)
4. $1,466,983 Jagcon
5. $1,203,893 Sinclair Knight Merz (RMA - new prisons)
6. $841,364 Audit NZ
7. $828,491 Cerno (management development)
8. $657,025 Wavelength (management and training)
9. $645,822 Teesdale Associates (employment relations)
10. $621,322 Able Training (training)

ENDS

© Scoop Media