Critics worry that the government will have too much influence, and external expertise is not absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, the federal government has spent more than a billion euros on consultants since 2017, according to a request.
The federal government has spent more than one billion euros on external consultants since 2017. This emerges from a response from the Ministry of Finance to a request from Left-wing MP Matthias Höhn, which is available to the German Press Agency. The front runners in terms of investments in external expertise were the Ministry of the Interior with at least EUR 492.9 million, the Ministry of Transport with EUR 196.9 million and the Ministry of Finance with EUR 121.7 million.
Höhn asked the government about the expenditure for external advisory and support services from the beginning of the election period on October 24, 2017 to July 31, 2021. In some cases, however, the information from the individual ministries includes the whole of 2017. This is the case with the Ministry of Transport, for example. The Ministry of Labor reported the lowest expenditure for external expertise with 2.5 million euros and the Chancellery with 3.3 million euros. The bottom line is that at least 1.073 billion euros have been spent on external support since 2017.
Worry about influencing government work too much
The involvement of business consultants and other external experts by the federal government is highly controversial. Critics say that buying expertise is too expensive and, given the thousands of employees in the ministries, not absolutely necessary. In addition, it is feared that it will have too great an impact on government work. Proponents, on the other hand, expect added value in a wide variety of areas through an outside perspective or use experts for special tasks that do not require permanent employees. This can apply to tasks in the IT area, for example.
Höhn attested that the government of the Union and the SPD had a “devastating balance sheet” in terms of consultant spending at the end of the legislative period. “The next federal government must finally create complete transparency about the activities of these companies in the ministries and authorities and massively reduce their influence on political decision-making processes,” he demanded.
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