Money down the drain

Patricia Hewitt in a previous incarnation was a management consultant, working for Andersen's (of Enron fame); Richard Granger the shortly to be ex-head of the disastrous NHS IT programme was another Andersen's product. It is the management consultant culture (and the application of the notorious "performance management" - a concept perfected in the jungles of Vietnam) which has contributed to the destruction of the public service in the UK, and the NHS in particular.

Now even politicians are getting a bit tired of the management consultant rip off culture, as evidenced by this piece from the Guardian:

Whitehall could save taxpayers at least £500m a year by relying on advice from civil servants rather than paying nearly £2bn a year for the "profligate" services of consultants, a committee of MPs recommends today. The Commons public accounts committee found that Whitehall departments often hire consultants before establishing whether in-house staff have the skills for the job. It called for a "more intelligent" use of consultants, echoing new advice from Sir Gus O'Donnell, the cabinet secretary, to all departments, following publication of a critical report from the National Audit Office, parliament's spending watchdog.