Advisers earn $5.7m from public sector

Dozens of consultants were engaged across Western Australia's public sector in the first half of this year, with Infrastructure WA spending nearly $1 million on external advisers.

Information on the state government's expenditure on consultants was tabled in state parliament yesterday, with the latest report showing 73 consultants were engaged by the state government in the six months to June at an overall cost of $5.68 million.

Most of those works were sought by departments that fell under portfolios held by Premier Mark McGowan, with the cost incurred by consultants sought by agencies under the premier and treasurer’s portfolios being $2.45 million.

Those works included $930,000 spent on 15 consutlants by Infrastructure WA and $650,000 spent on seven consultants by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

Other agencies to incur notable costs included the Department of Communities, which spent $1.39 million to engage 10 consultants across the housing, child protection and community services portfolios.

Those works came under departments overseen by portfolios held by Simone McGurk and John Carey.

While previous reports of this nature have included the names of consultants and the purpose and duration of the engagement, the latest edition does not appear to provide those details.

A state government spokesperson told Business News this was an oversight and that the official report will be tabled before the end of this year.