Strengthening our public sector is the task driving Victoria’s Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings.

Strengthening our public sector is the task driving Victoria’s Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings.

The Government wants to build the capabilities and skillsets of in house staff while moving away from the expensive reliance on outsourced advice.

$60 million was spent on consultants in the 2014/15 financial year alone in just eight Departments their Annual Reports disclose.

DEDJTR spent $12.78 million (inc. GST)
DELWP spent $3.102 million (incl. GST)
DTF spent $21.4 million (ex GST)
DoJR spent $379,093.99 (ex GST)
DET spent $5.6 million (ex GST)
DPC spent $1.307 million (ex GST)
DHS spent $11.06 million (ex GST)
Victoria Police spent $2.836 million (ex GST)

Gavin Jennings recently told online magazine The Mandarin that government certainly wants to be more confident in the knowledge base centrally and within agencies so we’ll be able to make wiser decisions about how much goes outside and who we go to,

Annual Reports portray a systemic dependence of government agencies on these external self promoters with $22.5 million spent the previous financial year 2013/14 while almost six thousand in house jobs were cut.

	2013/14 (excl. GST)	2014/15 (excl. GST)
DEDJTR	$4.26 million DTPLI	$13.23 million
DELWP	$2.603 million  DEPI	$3.102 million
DTF	$3.601 million	$21.4 million
DOJ	$379,998	$379,094
DET	$2.040 million	$5.6 million
DPC	$1.025 million	$1.307 million
DHS inc DOH	$5.697 million	$11.06 million
Victoria Police	$2,612 million	$2.836 million

While the previous government’s answer to this was to give preference to outsourcing, Jennings says, he would rather build in-house ability.

The move is seen as timely as Government’s face an increasing hostile electorate tired of excuses for failing public infrastructure and services and questions about whether widespread outsourcing has been worthwhile including from former Prime Minister and Cabinet head Terry Moran.

Last year the Government won widespread praise when it cancelled the previous government’s plans to outsource the state’s shared IT services provider CenITex.

Government stopped that process so we could bring it in house and develop our working knowledge to be able to make more mature decisions about hardware and software maintenance regimes in the future, Jennings said.

The government plans to sign off on a new strategy shortly and part of the solution will be skilling up existing employees, including managers.

“They don’t have to become technicians, they don’t have to become specialists, but they have to have a greater appreciation of what our current capability is and what options there may be available to them.

“They have to have skill development within organisations to lift the general capability across the workforce … We have to make sure we have a working culture that values that skill base and develops it over time,” Gavin Jennings told The Mandarin.