By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

EVEN though the budget for consultancy services will increase in the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Tourism in the next fiscal year, Economic Affairs Minister Michael Halkitis said this does not mean consultants will be hired.

Consultancy services in the Ministry of Finance will increase by $7m, from $20,175,000 to $27,175,000.

The budget for this service in the Ministry of Tourism will increase by more than $4m.

No other ministry or department will see a substantial budget increase for consultancy services.

Critics often highlight consultancy services as a vague line item in the budget with the potential for waste or political patronage.

During a press briefing yesterday, Mr Halkitis said: “Let me just make a clarification on that because every time you see this consultancy line, people think it’s consultants, think you’re hiring consultants, but that consultancy, when you see consultancy services, one of the biggest in the budget is the consultancy service for the landfill.”

“Also included in that is IT consultancy in the AG’s office. It has to do with when the AG, dealing with international matters, they might have to engage international council lawyers abroad to deal with certain matters. For example, US attorneys, UK attorneys, and so across the budget, you would see that, and a lot of that has to do with IT.

“A lot of it has to do with AG and then just various sums, you know, anytime you engage the private sector, for the most part that goes down as consultants. It does not mean that the government is hiring consultants, but sometimes it’s framed as the government hired consultants.”

In fact, the Office of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Legal Affairs have a line item for consultancy services that is separate from what is under the Ministry of Finance; that budget will increase from $2.25m to $3m in the upcoming fiscal year.