The Government remains firmly committed to reducing the use of consultants. Consultants should only be engaged when the required professional expertise is not available internally or cannot be provided in a more cost-effective manner than can be obtained by engaging a consultant.

A requirement of the Guidelines for the Engagement and Use of Consultants is the provision of details on all consultancy arrangements to the Premier's Department (formerly the Public Employment Office).

This will no longer be required. Data collection on expenditure will be confined to that undertaken by the NSW Treasury. Treasury has implemented new procedures for year-end data collection that require agencies to report all consultancy expenses in their Annual Return.

CEOs should also note that Treasury has restated the definition of a consultant'. A consultant is a person or organisation engaged under contract on a temporary basis to provide recommendations or high level professional or specialist advice to assist decision-making by management. Generally, it is the advisory nature of the work that differentiates a consultant from other contractors. Further detail and illustrations of this distinction are provided in Guidelines for the Engagement and Use of Consultants.

Any enquiries on this matter should be directed to Jessica Stewart on tel: (02) 9228 5292.

C. Gellatly
Director General