Why government should be careful in calling in management consultants

 I re-read this year-old interview with economist, Mariana Mazzucato, and I thought should post it  here.

Mazzucato is an economist who thinks the government is a force for good and that the good that governments do has been obscured by the rise of neo-liberal ideas.  She has co-authored a book, The Big Con, which contends that governments harm themselves by hiring big consulting firms to work for them. We have the usual problems, lack of genuine expertise in the firms and conflicts of interest. 

But the real problem, Mazzucato, contends is that it takes interesting work in government away from civil servants and is hence demotivating to them. The answer to finding expertise is to pay civil servants better and to give them challenging assignments,not oursourcing the work of government to consultants.

Here is an excerpt from the interview for those who can't access the interview:

For the past decade, she has waged a sometimes lonely battle to rehabilitate the state’s reputation as an economic motor. Her new book, The Big Con, written with Rosie Collington, argues that consultancies are hobbling governments’ ability to perform that role. In her office, holding a Diet Coke, she says: “For me, the big wake-up call was Brexit [preparations], because [the consultants] were everywhere.” In 2019-20, the British government spent nearly £1bn on strategy and other consultants — to the despair of some MPs. Mazzucato and Collington also widen their critique to include the Big Four accounting firms, such as Deloitte, and outsourcing companies, which carry out chunks of the state’s core functions.