Row over £2,000 a day consultants

The Government is paying IT and management consultants over £2,000 a day according to the Mail on Sunday which claims to have obtained a confidential report.

The report claims that the 'army of Government advisers' is costing the tax payer around £2 billion a year, despite a catalogue of costly high-profile project failures, including computer failures at HMRC.

The Mail on Sunday claims that internal Whitehall figures, compiled by the Office of Government Commerce, show that between April and December last year the Government was paying 'top internal IT consultants' £2,258 a day - up to £500,000 each a year.

Alex Flynn of the Public and Commercial Services Union told the Mail: "It does beggar belief that the Government is trying to make savings in the name of efficiency but at the same time they're prepared to bring in consultants paid in excess of £2,000 a day."

The union collects information on what it claims is 'wasteful spending' and cites the example of the Revenue and Customs unit that pays consultants £750 a day because of a 'lack of trained in house staff' to do 'the same job' as Civil Servants who receive £125.