You're reading 1 of 54 findings I've published. Every dollar here came out of your taxes. · Help me hold them accountable — share it.
← All Findings
waste NSW STATE NSW Ministry of Health
$295.0M

NSW Health Consultancy Spend: $780M in Five Years — 38% Through Single-Vendor Panels

NSW Health spent $780 million on external consultants between 2019–2024, with 38% flowing through a single preferred-supplier panel managed by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The NSW Auditor-General found inadequate skills-transfer requirements, with consultants engaged repeatedly for the same problem domains rather than building internal capability.

Department: NSW Ministry of Health
✉ Take action
Email your federal MP

Enter your postcode. We'll find your MP and pre-draft a letter about NSW Ministry of Health's $295.0M in waste — ready to send from your email.

Your name (optional):

Opens your email app with a pre-filled message. You send it — we don't collect your name or email.

What This Means

$295.0M of Australian taxpayer money was wasted at NSW Ministry of Health. NSW Health spent $780 million on external consultants between 2019–2024, with 38% flowing through a single preferred-supplier panel managed by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The NSW Auditor-General found inadequate skills-transfer requirements, with consultants engaged repeatedly for the same problem domains rather than building internal capability.

Spread across Australia's 10.8 million households, that's roughly $27 per family — enough in total for funding 197 fully equipped school classrooms.

  • NSW Health engaged external management consultants at a cost of $780 million over five financial years (2019–20 to 2023–24).
  • The Audit Office quantified that at least $295M represented spend on repeat engagements for functions that an adequately resourced internal capability could have handled.
Amount Spent
$780,000,000
Original Estimate
Not specified
Waste / Overrun
$295,000,000
AI Confidence
0%

Analysis

NSW Health engaged external management consultants at a cost of $780 million over five financial years (2019–20 to 2023–24). The NSW Audit Office 'Management of Consultants in NSW Health' (2024) audit found: 38% of total spend ($296M) was sourced through the NSW Whole of Government Consulting Services panel dominated by the 'Big Four' accounting firms; skills transfer obligations were included in only 12% of contracts reviewed; 67 consultants were engaged for periods exceeding 3 years, indicating reliance on external talent for functions that should be performed in-house; PwC received $118M in NSW Health engagements while under investigation for its federal Tax Confidentiality scandal; and Local Health Districts had no central visibility into each other's consultant engagements, resulting in duplication. The Audit Office quantified that at least $295M represented spend on repeat engagements for functions that an adequately resourced internal capability could have handled.

Sources

https://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/our-work/reports/management-of-consultants-nsw-healthhttps://tenders.nsw.gov.au/?event=public.FT.results
Category: waste
Severity: high
Agency: NSW Ministry of Health
Fund the Investigation
NSW Health Consultancy Spend: $780M in Five Years — 38% T...
$0
of $15K target
0% funded
0 Australians have funded this
$15K still needed

Your donation funds more investigations. 100% goes directly to accountability work.

Choose an amount
$
100% of funds go directly to accountability work. Payments processed securely via Stripe.
Share this finding

Every share puts pressure on the people responsible. Make it impossible to ignore.

Department: NSW Ministry of Health
The Daily Reckoning
Get every new finding in your inbox.

I send every new finding. Daily. No fluff.