Auckland Council spends $190 million on global accountants and big law firms in five years
The “Big 4″ global accounting firms and top New Zealand law firms have been pocketing more than $100,000 per day in fees from the Super City over the past five years, a Heraldinvestigation has found.
Law firms have accounted for $127 million over the five-year period, followed by the “Big 4″ accountant firms of PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG, which have been paid $63m between them, coming to a total of $190m.
The investigation follows a similar probe in 2021, which found that the Super City has become a $10 billion goldmine for multinational corporations and local companies.
Critics have described the figures as eye-watering and troubling during a time of pandemic budget cuts.
They have also horrified Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, who has promised to clamp down on spending by consultants from “the big end of town”.
The average $104,000-a-day cost to ratepayers continued through the emergency and recovery Covid-induced budgets that led to cuts in public transport and road maintenance due to a sharp fall in income. The period does not cover the $375m budget hole addressed in Brown’s first budget this year.
Last month, the Herald revealed Brown had spent $299,053 with the law firm Meredith Connell in his first five months on the job.
This outrageous price gouging is occurring right as the Corporate Consultants secretly plot amongst themselves to avoid losing their enormous influence…
Transparency International has set up a secret group of lobbyists to provide advice on improving ethics in the lobbying industry – sparking claims it is being captured by the forces it seeks to contain.
Questions are also being raised about whether the open government and anti-corruption watchdog is compromised by its sources of funding and support.
Transparency International New Zealand (TINZ) receives funding from several government sources, including the clandestine state intelligence agencies the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
TINZ, a registered charity, also receives business support from a number of big consultancy firms including KPMG, Deloitte and PWC.
…Labour’s reliance on consultants is part of their cultural Professional Managerial Class capture.
The Wellington Bureaucracy isn’t left wing! It’s a self interested Professional Managerial Class who use identity politics to mask their neoliberal hands-off-do-nothing-but-build-glass-palaces fiefdoms.
Oh they do the reo, and expose their pronouns and militantly ride bikes, they are effortless in their use of inclusion as a means to dominate and control the narrative, but they are a middle class clique, not left wing egalitarianism.
The Wellington Bureaucracy is a culture war of woke middle class Identity Politics aspirations backed with State funding, they may aesthetically be Left but they sure as fuck aren’t economically Left.
Likewise the consultancy industry that feed on their Wellington relationships with the Self Serving Public Service, they are also part of the woke washed culture clique whose interests are not ours.
We are spending A Million dollars a day is spent on motels for vulnerable people causing enormous social carnage with no real wrap around support services present and 25 000 are on emergency waiting lists – we can’t solve those problems apparently but the Government can spend a billion dollars on consultants each year?
$1bn spend on consultants each year
“Labour’s spending on contractors and consultants has climbed to nearly $1bn a year, despite Labour coming to power suggesting that they would rein in this use of the private sector. Much of this is spent on the “Big Four” contractor firms – Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and Ernst and Young.”
What the hell has happened to left wing transformative change?
You can not spend a billion dollars a year on the professional managerial class in consulting while 150 499 children live in extreme poverty, while we hand out 100 000 food packages each month while our mental health system screams.
You can’t spend a billion dollars a year on consultants while so many are in material hardship.
The real power struggle in NZ isn’t Left vs Right, it’s between the Professional Managerial Class Consultants vs a self serving Public Service!
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Martyn – Good Lord, that’s not good
Labour’s reliance on consultants is because they came into office with no fully formed policies: Just brain farts.
I think the reason for this was the factionalization created by Clark where she ruled the party by division. So that by the time Jacinda got lucky, thanks to Winston, she was ushered into office leading a party that was at war with itself and couldn’t agree on anything.
Not disagreeing with you but how will that change when a Nat Act government comes in? Do they have fully formed policies?
I would like know what the projections are moving forward. The healthcare reforms must reach a point where the project is “over”. It’s pretty clear from the mess that all those executive boards in the DHBs were doing f all. Somehow people think one bureaucracy is more evil than 20.
It seems the spending is continuing under Mayor Brown, and remember Luxon used consultants whilst AirNZ CEO.
Too true Peter. Not defending Labours track record of reigning in the state sector but I can’t see things changing too much under the new government. They’ll spend a fortune laying off people and then god knows how much on outsourcing certain things to those that have been laid off who then start their own consulting business!
My thoughts too Wheel. So sad when we can see the inevitable! I am very much in the position of voting against rather than for any of the options before us.
Thank heavens for Mayor Brown he’s for Auckland which is an excellent change from the dopey career politicians we’ve had to endure.
By the way Collins is a career politician but continues to struggle to explain what he stands for.
Thank heavens for Mayor Brown he’s for Auckland which is an excellent change from the dopey career politicians we’ve had to endure.
By the way Collins is a career politician but continues to struggle to explain what he stands for.
and yet you think there’s grounds to raise taxes despite all this ridiculous spending
yes yeti taxation is a different issue to profligate spending on vanity projects…and yes somethings are wasteful some are not…try asking those around the auckland sinkhole about infrastructure spending
Sir Humphrey was absolutely spot on.
https://youtu.be/cIYfiRyPi3o
The article noted that Auckland council also employs 83 in house lawyers. What do they do?
good question peter..
” What the hell has happened to left wing transformative change ? ”
That was just another electioneering marketing slogan like “were in it for you ” Bread and butter basics ” ” build back better ” A brighter future ” and the ” decent society ”
The longer this majority government have been in office the more shallow Arden and her transformation is proving to be.
” The real power struggle in NZ isn’t Left vs Right, it’s between the Professional Managerial Class Consultants vs a self serving Public Service ”
And the powerful supermarkets , banks insurance and power corporates.
The more that is revealed about who really controls government and the country the more it shows the extent of the plutocracy and the war it is raging against so many whose votes are about to be solicited again to put the same people who safeguard the entire rotten system back into parliament to continue their reach and influence after October 14th.
I often wonder just how much power government actual has to make transformative changes. We are so tied up with trade agreements, foreign banks and investment, powerful lobby groups, self serving SOEs and Council owned organisations, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations that transformative change seems a distant unachievable dream short of a Cuba/Castro style revolution.
organised criminal gangs whose racket is stealing taxpayers money I’d trust tony soprano before this bunch of theives
One of the problems councils have at the moment is that they are struggling to retain staff because the private sector has upped their pay rates. The regular panic about increasing rates means council’s can’t keep up with pay rates and are just falling further and further behind. I know of a couple of councils in my area that are chronically short staffed – if they’re lucky they might be able to hire some extra consultants as a kind of permanent stop-gap measure.
Wayne Brown, bereft of intelligent analysis as he is, will try throwing his weight around but it will just make the problem worse – potential staff are even less likely to want to work for a council led by someone they see as as dinosaur.
The Government and council s hire the big 4 bean counter firms . When if they spoke to the staff and customers they would have got t same answers for free.
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