Whitehall's employment practices have returned to the frontline of the public savings debate, after MPs criticised departments' widespread use of expensive consultants while recruitment specialists claimed interim managers could reduce payroll costs significantly.
Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons' influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC), last week described as ‘crazy' Whitehall's extensive use of external consultants to inform, oversee and deliver major government programmes in the run-up to the coalition's austere Spending Review.
