Officials do not do the jobs for which they are paid ie. making decisions. A consultant is used to validate changes but without the burden of accountability. SES still earn bonuses due to the impression of 'continuous improvement' and change management despite negative outcomes.

There may be legitimate cases where technical expertise is not available in-house, but as rehctub states no accountability if the private sector gets it wrong.

Another trend is to outsource to 'managed services' where staffing costs can be hidden in other business costs giving the appearance of reducing the size of the PS. The result is casual staff hired via the provider earn less (even with casual loading) than permanent PS employees at the same level, with all the benefits of leave etc.

The only area in which outsourcing leads to higher wages is in the IT field but in the lower paid clerical/call centre roles wages are lower via a managed service. Meanwhile the SES continues to grow.

Many consultancy reports are self-fulfilling, recommending cuts with outsourcing options to reduce risk. The cuts often go ahead without the outsourcing to legitimise staff reduction due to budget demands. Officials will cherry pick recommendations to suit a pre-conceived agenda. Imagine if the money wasted went towards reforming hospitals.

Public servants are also under pressure from minister's offices budget wise and if the Minister wants extra support from a department, this requires extra personnel but no corresponding increase in budget especially after 'popularity' cuts to the public service.

The result is usually pillaging staff from other areas or cuts through natural attrition, in a 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' process to be able to support a minister's office often blurring the line between impartial public service and government PR. Often the changes are to give the appearance of greater service rather than the reality.

The Department of Finance really needs to reform government purchasing and outsourcing, which in it's current form sit in complete opposition to the APS Codes of Conduct and APS Values in relation to transparency, OH&S and other workplace issues.

P.S.

Consultants do carry professional indemnity insurance as they can be sued for negligence. However, in this case I am sure that you will find that they are covered by disclaimers based on the information provided by the government.

The real issue here, as someone has already identified, is the nonsense of the PPP style evasion of state responsibility.

Of course the consultants in this job only did what they were paid to do.

But it is time we simply got back to the state providing the infrastructure up-front, from tax revenues, and it is past time that governments kept insisting that it was a sin to increase taxes.

That said, as far as roads go, the roadwork in and around Brisbane is a shocking waste of tax monies.

What was needed was more railways, more and different buses, more cycling and walking infrastruture, not yet more and bigger roads.

And it would be appreciated if 'some' money was spent outside Brisbane, in RARA land.