4.5 Consultants

Ministerial consultants

The use of consultants (including persons, partnerships or bodies corporate) by Ministers to undertake tasks on behalf of the Minister should be limited in nature, scope and number.

In keeping with the principle that the Minister's primary source of advice is the Director-General of the Department, any tasks which are reasonably associated with the program or activities of the Department for which the Minister is responsible, should generally be treated as a Departmental issue. Should the engagement of a consultant be necessary for these types of issues, any consultant engaged should be engaged by the Director-General in accordance with normal Departmental approval processes and at the expense of the Department. The decision concerning the necessity to engage a consultant in this instance rests with the Director-General.

Ministers may however engage consultants on specified tasks:

1. associated directly with the Minister's Office;
2. associated with the exercise of the Minister's discretion under legislation; or
3. for the purpose of obtaining advice independent from the Minister's Department when the Minister in consultation with the Premier believes such independent advice is required.

All consultants engaged by the Minister are to be paid from the Minister's Office Budget.

Each proposed Ministerial consultancy is subject to the approval of the Premier.

Any Minister's Office considering engaging consultants should contact Ministerial Services.

State Purchasing Policy

When engaging consultants, the Minister must comply with relevant Financial Acts, all Cabinet directions, and particularly the Queensland Government State Purchasing Policy (external link).

In general terms, a consultant is defined as an organisation or individual contracted to perform a specific task and provide specific expert advice as an independent contractor by exercising his or her own skill and judgement and where the agency does not exercise detailed control over the work performed. Consultancy services constitute a contract for service.

Consultancy services should only be obtained when:

1. there is a clear need for specialist technical and professionally independent advice or services; and
2. in-house staffing resources/skills or contract staff are not available to adequately address the requirements of the consultancy in a more cost effective manner.

Pre-selection

A clearly defined submission supporting the need to engage consultancy services shall be prepared and must be approved by the Premier. The submission shall at the very least include:

1. the reasons for the engagement;
2. the scope and specification of services required;
3. an examination of the resource viability of the consultancy, as opposed to alternative resourcing options such as in-house resourcing and contractors (ie. a cost/benefit analysis); and
4. an estimate of the anticipated expenditure for the consultancy service to be performed.

In terms of public interest and accountability considerations, this documentation must be retained for audit purposes and should be forwarded to Ministerial Services for retention in accordance with requirements of the Financial Administration and Audit Act 1977.

Selection

A specification identifying the consultancy requirements shall be provided to an appropriate selection of suitably qualified consultants, to ensure that the market of consultancy providers is adequately canvassed.

In accordance with each contract's value, specifications seeking proposals for the consultancy services shall be sought as follows:

Contract Value	Proposal Process
Less than $10,000	Three (3) quotations either verbally or in writing.
$10,000 to $100,000	Written submissions from three (3) or more consultants.
Over $100,000	Written submissions sought by public advertisement.

All selections shall be at 'arms length' and subject to open competition.

Following receipt of proposals, a comprehensive selection process shall be completed and documented. The process should analyse the suitability of all proposals in terms of the project specification and should also include a cost/benefit analysis of the competing proposals.

In terms of public interest and accountability considerations, selection process documentation must be retained for audit purposes and should be forwarded to Ministerial Services.

Exemptions to the selection process

Exemptions to the selection process outlined above may only be approved by the Premier.

The range of circumstances under which exemptions to the process for engaging consultants will usually be approved, include:

1. the specialist or confidential nature of the consultancy - with a reasonable conclusion being that only one, or a limited number of consultants, could undertake the work; and
2. the urgency of the project (eg. insufficient time to seek invitations from the market).

As approvals granted in this regard effectively authorise engagement without open competition, the Minister has an obligation to ensure that:

1. all exemptions approved are publicly defensible; and
2. all engagements are made on an "arms length" basis and represent value for money.

In terms of public interest and accountability considerations, documentation supporting all exemptions approved must be retained for audit purposes and should be forwarded to Ministerial Services.

Contractual arrangements

All contracts and commissions for consultancies are to be executed by the Minister prior to engagement.

Contracts shall clearly specify the terms and conditions of the consultancy as well as the rights and obligations of both parties of the contract.

Contracts may be multi-staged, as long as they are clearly defined as multi-staged at the outset, but are not to be 'open ended' with clauses providing for extended work beyond the scope of the specified engagement.

Contracts should be in accordance with either the standard proforma 'shortform' or 'longform' contracts available from Ministerial Services.

Contracts must be signed by both the Minister and the engaged consultant.

Supervision of consultancies

The Minister shall be responsible for systematically monitoring and reviewing the performance of all consultancies in terms of:

1. the performance of the consultant in terms of the contract;
2. any variations to the contract's scope, in terms of work required, costs or other factors;
3. any requests by the consultant for extensions in which to complete the project; and
4. expenditure and commitments against the authorised budget. (Note: work is not to be undertaken without prior expenditure authority).

At the completion of all contracts, a detailed performance report covering all aspects of the consultancy shall be completed and retained. These reports provide invaluable information to support future engagement decisions and should be used for future reference purposes. This report should be forwarded to Ministerial Services.

Last reviewed: 17 July, 2009

Last updated: 22 July, 2009

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