More than $3 billion in government procurement was spent by government with big four consultancies in a decade.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has released a report on procurement spending from July 2012 to July 2022.
Coming out on top of consultancy procurement spend reported was KPMG with $329.4 million from 1,360 contracts.
EY was second, with $320.2 million from just over 1000 contracts and Deloitte accumulated $190.5 million from 860 contracts.
Total spend with consultancies has rocketed by more than $500 million since 2012 when $352 million was spent. Last year’s total reached $888 million. An average of 4,071 contracts per year were reported with consultancies.
With overall spend, more than 820,000 contracts were reported on AusTender totalling $565 billion in value for the 10-year reporting period.
Government spending in the spotlight.
Over the past decade, one-third of the total contract value was dedicated to amendments, the report said. The value of these amendments to existing contracts has increased significantly from $4 billion in 2012-13 to $28 billion in 2021-22.
During the same ten-year period, the median value of parent contracts has risen from $35,568 in 2012-13 to $68,064 in 2021-22. Additionally, when a contract has an amendment to its value, the median value of these contract amendments has also increased from $59,151 in 2012-13 to $122,066 in 2021-22.
Procurements with the highest value (and number of contracts too) were categories of ‘Commercial and Military and Private Vehicles and their Accessories and Components’ ($123 billion), ‘Management and Business Professionals and Administrative Services ($107 billion) and ‘Engineering and Research and Technology Based Services’ ($57 billion).
