SCOPE

The team looked at government ministries. They did not investigate agencies or Crown corporations.

METHODS

Students started by identifying payments to consultants that are recorded in Public Accounts, a document released annually that details government expenditures. In particular, they examined payments to third parties listed under ‘Goods and Services’ for each ministry. Only a fraction of such third party payments appear in the SaskTenders registry – therefore, public accounts were a vital source. 

The students then looked at company websites, tender registries and corporate registries to determine the type of services offered by consulting firms, and who the company board members were. They checked names against public records of salaried government employees, and noted any that were receiving both a salary and additional goods and services fees.

Information was put in spreadsheets, employing a technique called Computer-Assisted Reporting (CAR) to indentify patterns, trends, and crossovers.

Because information requires context, students studied the major policy directions and goals of each ministry. In the spirit of ‘right of reply,’ government officials were contacted to provide opportunity to clarify unclear or unusual findings.

SOURCES 

The following sources were consulted:

• • Saskatchewan Public Accounts (primary source)
  • ISC Corporate Registry
  • SaskTenders
  • Merx
  • Corporate websites, LinkedIn and other online sources
  • Saskatchewan Gazette
  • Ministry and company spokespeople
  • Government committee meeting minutes

Of note, the SaskTender registry contained only a fraction of consultancies listed as being paid for in the annual Public Accounts.

Not all contracts are tendered, or at least were not tendered in the years examined. For example, just 21 tenders were listed for the health ministry in 2013-2014, all related to medical supplies. No lean consultants or other IT and management consultants were listed, although the ministry makes heavy use of such services. The Public Accounts showed 26 such consultants were hired that year, including a $10 million contract for John Black and Associates that does not appear in SaskTenders.

Conversely, an award of $66,455 to Probe Research of Winnipeg to conduct labour market analysis for Enterprise Saskatchewan in 2012 appeared in SaskTenders but did not appear in Public Accounts.

HOW WE DEFINED ‘CONSULTANT’

The Provincial Auditor turned to the Government Organization Act to determine what activities fell under the definition of consultation. The Act stated ministers may “engage the services of or retain any technical, professional, or other advisors, specialist or consultants considered necessary.” This Act has since been replaced by the Executive Government Services Act, which contains similar wording.

“We focused on technical, specialized, management and systems consultants,” Jennifer Lefebvre, communications specialist for the Provincial Auditor’s office, wrote in an email. Legal and communications assistance were not included in the auditor’s count.

Students followed this general guideline. Companies that included ‘consulting’ in their company name, or that identified consulting as a major activity on their websites or in publicly available bid descriptions, were added to our list. Students searched the names of individual recipients of Goods and Services payments, and noted any that were clearly identifiable as consultants.

Where a person or company’s role was unclear, ministry officials were contacted to provide additional background information on the services the individual or company provided. People who were not involved in advising on government operations and management – whose activities ranged from mosquito control to court reporting – were removed from the calculations.

The SaskTenders registry also provided some guidance. Initially, IBM was not included as a consultant, because we felt their work would mainly involve daily operations. However, SaskTenders identified these contracts as consultancies, so IBM included. Likewise, we did not initially include Information Services Corporation, however they were indicated as playing a consultancy role in government documents, so were included in the final tally.

The article on Central Services goes into further detail about how companies and individuals were chosen for inclusion on the list.