The federal government paid more than 230 million euros to consulting firms in 2023

Last year, federal ministries spent approximately 239 million euros on external consulting services. The focus was on IT and digitalization projects. Overall, consulting costs increased by approximately 54 million euros or 29 percent compared to the previous year. This comes from an existing report of the federal finance ministry, which is not available. Spiegel reported on this earlier.

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The largest share of spending on consulting firms in 2023 belonged to the Ministry of the Interior (BMI): in the ministry itself it was 26 million euros, and in related authorities such as the BKA 33.8 million. As the ministry reported, BMI’s expenditure was “essentially attributable to IT-related consultancies”. External consultants are hired when a higher level of expertise is required or the administration does not have the necessary knowledge and resources. “This is especially true in the IT and digitalization sectors.”

For example, in 2023, BMI spent a good 367,000 euros on “support services for the preparation and implementation of strategic substantive decisions for the implementation of the Online Access Act”. This was approximately 586,000 euros for “support services for the introduction of the basic e-file service”, approximately 3.6 million euros for “support and advice on the introduction of e-invoicing in the federal administration”.

4.5 million euros for the “Concept of the Federal Operating Platform”

The Justice Ministry also emphasizes the role of digitalization in its explanation. The focus of the consultancy expenditure was therefore on “one-off IT-related measures in relation to the introduction of digital infrastructure and electronic business processes”.

In the Ministry of Finance, consultancy costs are also largely IT related. The department cites the IT integration of the federal government, increasing digitalization of administration and increasing demands on IT security as the main reasons. The BMF spent more than 4.5 million euros on advice on the “Concept of a Federal Operating Platform” project alone.

A total of 100 million euros for external IT consulting

However, several other ministries also had high IT-related consulting costs, such as the Ministry of Digital and Transport (about 2.6 million euros for “Project Management Digital Planning, Construction and Operation”) and the Ministry of Health (about 2.7 million euros for “Strategic -operational advice, implementation of the redesign and transformation of Gematic into a digital agency”) and at the Ministry of Education (a cool 800,000 euros for advice and project support for “My Education Space”).

According to another overview from the Ministry of Finance, federal ministries spent a total of about 100 million euros in 2023 on advice from external parties in the “IT” sector. In the “control” area it was a little less than 14 million euros, in the “legal advice” area about 23 million euros. These figures are comparable only to a limited extent with the total amount of EUR 239 million mentioned above, because a different definition of consulting services is used.

MP Lotz criticizes lack of transparency

Gesin Lotz, member of the parliamentary group Die Linke and member of the Bundestag, commented, “Despite a huge increase in staff levels in federal ministries by approximately 30,000 employees, spending on external consultants continues to increase by millions annually.” Purchasing specialization is not only “unnecessarily expensive”, but also promotes the influence of outside companies on government functions. “However, what is particularly insidious is the practice of placing orders to companies that remain anonymous,” Lotz stressed. Ministries do not always mention the names of contractors in their reports to the BMF.

(CWO)

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