Money has gone from government hands into consultants’ coffers in a big way over recent years and multiple state and federal parliamentary committees are having a closer look to see what secrets can be laid bare.
One of the things helping senators such as Barbara Pocock and Deborah O’Neill is the willingness of former and current partners and staff to pass on some of the dark arts of drawing blood out of the public service stone.
The whistleblowers are telling them both that government departments are being played and end up agreeing to new contracts or extensions of existing ones because the work was not being done on schedule.
Pocock told The Mandarin she wanted to acknowledge the role of whistleblowers from within the larger consulting practices that were highlighting that the committee was not necessarily being given the full picture by those either submitting or appearing before them to give evidence.
She said people who are regularly contacting senators and politicians were being told “that you guys are being treated like mugs”.
“I have had a recent long conversation with a whistleblower from within one of the Big Four who went through what it is like and how blind government is,” Pocock said.
“The commentary [the whistleblower] made is that it is often not until it is quite close to the end of a contract – fairly large government contracts – that government officers will come in and say ‘Oh well, how is it going? Where are we up to on deliverables?’
“[They]...
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