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Government spent 186 million euros on consultants in the first half of the year

2020-10-25T08:05:51.915Z


Around 20,000 people work in the Chancellery and the ministries. Nevertheless, the government spent a three-digit million amount on external expertise in the first half of 2020. Interior Minister Seehofer needed most of it.


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People in the Paul-Löbe-Haus in Berlin

Photo: Wolfgang Kumm / dpa

The federal government spent at least 186.1 million euros on external consultants in the first half of the year.

The front runners in terms of investments in external expertise are the Ministry of the Interior with EUR 79.8 million and the Ministry of Finance with EUR 48.2 million.

It is followed by the Ministry of Health with 16.3 million and the Transport Department with 16.0 million.

The Ministry of Defense, on the other hand, is the only department that states that it did not spend any money on consultants from January to June.

The figures come from a response from the Ministry of Finance to a request from left-wing MP Matthias Höhn, which the German Press Agency has received.

The involvement of business consultants and other external experts by the federal government is highly controversial.

Critics think that buying expertise is too expensive and, given the more than 20,000 employees in the ministries, not absolutely necessary.

In addition, it is feared that it will have too much influence on government work.

Proponents, on the other hand, promise added value in very different areas through an outside perspective or use experts for special tasks that do not require permanent employees.

It is not possible to compare the new figures with the same period in the previous year, as different criteria were used for recording in 2019.

This also explains why the Ministry of Defense was the front runner in the statistics in the first half of 2019 with expenditure of 154.9 million euros for "advisory and support services", and this year it was the only ministry to give 0 euros for the first six months.

A ministry spokeswoman justified this with the fact that this time, according to a definition of the budget committee, only "external advisory services" - i.e. no more support services - were given.

The left-wing MP Matthias Höhn called the information from the Ministry of Defense "untrustworthy".

"The federal government is trying to mislead the public by keeping the real consultancy costs under lock and key," he said.

He also criticized the fact that the expenditure for external expertise was much too high, especially in times of the corona pandemic.

"For the federal government, external consultants remain systemically relevant. But while nurses and cashiers only receive applause, the government has continued to reward external consultants with princely sums despite the lockdown and the economic crisis."

In January, a survey by the Ministry of Finance among the ministries showed expenditure on advisory and support services of at least 548.5 million euros in 2019.

However, not all ministries reported the figures for the whole year.

Only the Ministry of Education did not provide any information for the 2020 half-year statistics.

A parliamentary committee of inquiry has already dealt with the use of advisors in the Ministry of Defense under the direction of today's EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

It was about allegations of incorrect contract awarding to nepotism.

In their assessment of the committee work, the FDP, the Greens and the Left came to the conclusion that misconduct in the ministry had caused financial damage in the higher double-digit millions.

Icon: The mirror

jat / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-10-25

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