[ad_1]
Over the past year, the city of Oslo has increased the use of consultants to NOK 2.3 billion. The trend is opposite to what the City Council promised.
The Oslo City Council promised to cut the use of external consultants, but the opposite happened. Last year, the expenses of these consultants increased by 24 percent, but the financial agency Einar Wilhelmsen (far left) defends the use. From left to right: Einar Wilhelmsen Finance Agency (ODM). Victoria Marie Evensen (Ap) Industry and Property City Council, Hanna Marcussen (MDG) City Development Council, Lan Marie Nguyen Berg (MDG) Environment and Transport City Council and Deputy City Council Raymond Johansen (Ap), Robert Steen (Ap) City Council for Health, Elderly and Citizen Services, Omar Samy Gamal (SV), City Council for Labor, Social Services and Diversity, Rina Mariann Hansen (Ap), City Council for Culture, Sports and Volunteering and Inga Marte Thorkildsen (SV ), City Council for Growth and Knowledge.
Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix
published:
The red-green city council promised in 2015 and 2019 that the use of external consultants by the municipalities would be replaced by several of their own professionals, writes Dagsavisen. However, the City Council’s annual report indicates that this has not happened.
On the contrary, consulting has increased up to 24.4 percent, reaching more than NOK 400 million, only from 2018 to 2019. The final accounts show that NOK 2.28 billion was spent on external consultants.
Einar Wilhelmsen Financial Agency (MDG) has overall responsibility for consulting in the municipality. He says the municipality is completely dependent on consultants and points out, among other things, large and complex projects that are time-limited.
– The idea is to recover some of the central tasks of the municipality and not to use consultants where it is natural that we have the experience of the municipality. I see that you can read that we should be careful when hiring consultants even when we really need them on time-limited projects, says Wilhelmsen.
Even the right in the capital now thinks that the use of consultancy in the municipality is starting to lag, despite the fact that group leader Øystein Sundelin understands the need.
– But it’s clear. The number begins to rise, says Sundelin.
Also read
Oslo goes against the billions deficit due to the eruption of the crown
Also read
