Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has halved its spend on consultants and contractors over the past two financial years, following mandates from the new coalition government to cut "excessive" spending.
Government departments and agencies were ordered to find savings last year, including salaried and contracted staff.
Public Service Minister Judith Collins said the cost of salaries for the core public service was about $6.1 billion each year - a figure that grew 72 percent from 2017 to 2023, which she described as "staggering". This excluded those in the wider public sector such as defence personnel, teachers, police and public healthcare workers.
"We simply do not have sufficient taxpayers to support that kind of growth," Collins said.
In late March, she said the government was on track to save $800 million on consultants and contractors across in the two years to the end of June 2025.
She said money saved was "a direct result of the government's efforts to rein in excessive spending" while ensuring core government services continued to be delivered.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
MPI's chief financial officer Brent Healy said it spent $40.08m in operating and capital expenditure on consultants in the 2023/2024 financial year, its latest figures - down from the $63.89m spent in the 2022/2023 financial year.
Healy said MPI continued to actively reduce contractor and consultant costs, and it used its existing workforce where possible, but some work required specialists.
"Some projects require special expertise such as large capital projects," he said. "For example, larger multi-year projects that provide critical infrastructure for the primary sector, like our new biosecurity laboratories, includes work from engineers, architects, surveyors, and technical experts to help with the design."
In an organisational restructure, MPI cut about 10 percent of its workforce, 391 roles that included vacant positions and early redundancies, that took affect from July 2024.
Director-general Ray Smith said at the time, it would not make any reductions to frontline services or statutory roles like veterinarians or animal welfare and fisheries compliance officers.
MPI director-general Ray Smith at a stand-up on 2 December about the country's first case of high pathogenic bird flu found on Otago egg farm. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
MPI said this week the size of its full-time workforce reduced 8 percent on last year, to 3489 staff as of February 2025.
Meanwhile, Public Service Commission data showed the core public service workforce reduced in size by 4 percent throughout 2024 to 63,968 full-time staff, compared to 65,699 in December 2023.
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