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12/06/2010: "Consulting Government"

On the CBC The World at Six program on December 6 2010 (podcast link) was an article about the increasing use of consultants in government offices. In the closing phrases of the spiel describing why they are desirable, the reporter let drop a startling revelation.

At about 17:40 into the podcast above, the reporter says:

Departments keep personnel costs down by keeping new public service employee hires off the books, and not having to pay benefits or pensions.

While that doesn't sound like much on the surface, it's a surprising admission. Don't imagine for a minute that the highly trained consultants being described in the interview work without any benefits or pension plans. They are simply paid for by the consulting firms instead of the government.

This means that the cost of the wages, benefits, pension, and anything else paid by the consulting firms, plus consulting fee overheads, is still cheaper than hiring.

This rather puts a lie to the idea that government employees are paid comparable wages to their private sector counterparts.