The Eastern Cape government spent R3-billion on consultants — 15 times more than it spent on training its own employees — between 2002 and last year, according to a comprehensive report by the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) based in Grahamstown.
The report, titled Staff Shortages, Incapacity and the Excessive Use of Consultants by the Eastern Cape Provincial Government and written by PSAM senior researcher Dr Neil Overy, examines the use of consultants in the provincial government during the 2002/03 and 2003/04 financial years. It highlights the relationship between institutional incapacity and high staff vacancy rates and the increasing reliance on consultants.
Overy based his research on departmental annual reports and budget statements and found that in the past financial year the Eastern Cape administration spent 7% of its total budget on consultants and professional services — up from 6% the year before.
“This carries the danger of consultant spending increasingly crowding out spending on core departmental programmes,” the report notes.
In nominal terms, the provincial government spent R3-billion on consultants versus R220-million on training its own staff over the two-year period.
The average vacancy rate across all 13 provincial departments in 2002/03 was 30%. This increased to 32% the following year. The report found that the average critical-post vacancy rate was 39% in 2002/03 and 47% in 2003/04.
An extreme example is the provincial education department, which, over the past two years, has underspent its -conditional grant — which is specifically geared to improving capacity — by 50%.
The report also found that, despite public service regulations that performance management systems had to be fully implemented by April 2001, “there is little evidence to suggest that such systems have been properly implemented within Eastern Cape provincial government departments”.
It also appears that the use of consultants in the province is totally unchecked. “During the two years under review no recommendation has been made by any provincial portfolio committee in relation to the use of consultants by the provincial government,” the report notes.