Federal government consulting is now firmly in the big three era, with Ernst & Young, Deloitte and KPMG all collecting more than $3 million each from taxpayers in July, according to data available on AusTender.
EY took the honours in July with consulting contracts worth nearly $3.9 million (though inflated by a bumper $2.5 million three-year auditing contract for the Department of Industry). KPMG garnered the most pure-play consultancy dollars — $3.3 million over 11 contracts with six agencies. “Sky rockets in flight/Afternoon” Deloitte was close behind with $3.2 million, helped by a $1.6 million defence contract for “management advisory services” (way to go on transparency there, defence).
Defence, as always, has been handing out the big bucks: Capagility, a firm founded by three aeronautical engineers, recently signed a big deal to establish an aerospace propulsion centre of expertise for defence and received $5.8 million in July.
Health also handed $3.85 million to dementia research collective Australian Dementia Network for “design and pilot of preventative services”, and $2.4 million to “positive influence” consultants Nous Group for “user research and evaluation”. Nous earned a total of $26 million from taxpayers in 2021-22 and $22 million last year, so it’s off to another strong start for this year courtesy of health, which handed it $6 million last year and $6.7 million the year before.
As for PwC’s consulting arm, some agencies were, inexplicably, still handing money to it even as it was being flogged for a dollar. The National Emergency Management Agency — part of the scandal-plagued Home Affairs portfolio — gave PwC more than $1 million for “management advisory services” at the start of July, evidently ignoring Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo declaring in May he didn’t have confidence in the firm.
The soon-to-be-Scyne also collected $400,000 from the Climate Change Department for a “functional area plan” (presumably that means more than a seating plan for staff in the John Gorton Building), but that was pursuant to a contract back in April, so that department has some cover.
Meanwhile, PwC’s former rivals continue to enjoy a steady stream of revenue from taxpayers. So much value destruction at PwC for so little benefit.
