NT Health’s six-figure consultant cash splash on Ernst and Young to help steer major restructure

NT Health paid more than half a million dollars to the consultancy firm that employs the former public service boss now helping guide the department’s major internal restructure

NT Health paid more than half a million dollars to the consultancy firm that employs the former public service boss now helping guide the department’s major internal restructure.

The NT News can reveal Ernst and Young was awarded a $581,787 contract in April to undertake a review of NT Health’s COVID-19 response and provide recommendations for “improved integration and outcomes” within the department. The consultancy firm is now helping NT Health with a major internal restructure that involves consolidating Central Australia Health Service, Top End Health Service and NT Health into one mega-entity.

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Former Department of Trade, Business and Innovation chief executive Michael Tennant, now an associate partner at Ernst and Young, is leading the team tasked to “project manage the work streams” of the overall restructure project.

The sizeable contract did not go to a public tender process, with the information only uncovered via a single line item within a 66-page response to a question on notice submitted by the CLP.

A spokeswoman for NT Health confirmed a “direct purchasing arrangement” was used, as allowed under the Emergency Management Act, as the review was considered urgent.

Former DTBI boss Michael Tennant now employed with Ernst and Young. Picture: Keri Megelus

“The contract for the NT Health review is with Ernst and Young, of which Michael Tennant is an employee,” she said.

“There is no separate contract with Michael Tennant.”

The contract with EY made up a quarter of NT Health’s entire spend on external consultants in the 2019/20 financial year.

NT Health also spent $41,690 hiring a consultant from Perth in October last year to “provide a Financial Sustainability Reform Program to improve overall efficiency of service delivery and system manager functions”.

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A spokeswoman for the department said it was “normal” for health systems to call in consultants to do reviews and provide expert advice as the delivery of health services “is a very complex business”.

Opposition Health spokesman Bill Yan said the government needed to explain the value of the tender.

“Territorians paid for it (they should be) provided an explanation why a review of this magnitude was run behind closed doors,” he said.

“The fact the review didn’t go to tender suggests a lack of transparency from the Government into changes they wanted to make for some time to the NT’s health system structure.”