NSW Education Department cash splash as contractors given ‘a million a day’

A special state government taskforce has been created to slash Education Department consultants after it was found taxpayers were being charged $1 million a day for their work.

Education Department officials are paying contractors hired by the former Coalition government up to $1m a day for work able to be done in-house or at a far lower cost.

In one case, a contractor hired in the role of “project co-ordinator” in the asset management department was found to be receiving $350 an hour — or $637,0000 annually — for the work.

In a bid to stop the largesse, the Minns government has established a special task force, which will begin work from next week, to find further savings ahead of the upcoming NSW budget. The task force follows the government already taking the axe to consultants, which at their height within the Education Department numbered a staggering 2500.

More than 600 have since been let go, a move the government claims has saved taxpayers about $54m since July last year. But despite slashing consultants by about a third, the remainder are costing taxpayers an average $20m a month — or almost $1m every business day.

NSW Education Minister Prue Car. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Simon Bullard

Other dubious contractors identified by the government included a “web developer”, who was being paid $299,000 for work in the schools infrastructure department, while a “web designer” working in early childhood outcomes was given $299,000.

In contrast, a principal earns $242,221 while a head teacher receives almost $158,000.

The focus on consultants and contractors follows a damning NSW Audit Office report released last year, which revealed NSW government agencies had spen “about $1bn” on outsourced jobs over five years.

“More than 1000 consulting firms provided services to NSW government agencies during this period,” it said.

The report said that its review had found agencies were not procuring or managing consultants effectively, with examples of noncompliance with procurement rules, “including contract variations that exceeded procurement thresholds”.

Record keeping was also found to be inadequate, while “most agencies” did not even evaluate or assess their consulting engagements for quality. There was also no practice of consultants passing on skills to the bureaucracy to increase core staff skills.

An interim Education Department report for January to June 2023 showed just two contracts worth more than $50,000 were issued for the period, including one worth more than $400,000 to Ernst & Young for a “staff wellbeing strategy”.

A spokesman for Education Minister Prue Car said the government was working on reining in costs and redirecting savings to the classroom.

“Our focus is to get costs under control, teachers back in the classroom and for head office to support our principals and not to outsource to an army of contractors,” the spokesman said.

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