Management consultants and the public sector

PAUL G. THOMAS

FOR decades, I have sought to spice up otherwise dull speeches with quotes from Norman R. Augustine’s book Augustine’s Laws, which examined the complexities and conundrums of management and came up with 52 witty and wise laws.

Law Number XXXII reads: “Hiring consultants to conduct studies can be an excellent means of turning problems into gold, your problems into their gold.”

In recent decades, governments have made increasing use of consultants to support both policy development and operational activities. Governments could not function effectively and efficiently without the support of consultants in a wide range of areas. Reliance on consultants, however, involves risks and potential problems. In short, there is a place for consultants in the governing process and consultants should be kept in their place.

A small number of accounting and management firms — Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst and Young and McKinsey — dominate the consulting industry on a global basis. These firms, along with numerous smaller companies, interact thousands of times annually with different parts of a sprawling public sector and deliver positive results which definitely serve the public interest.

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