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Consultancy firms better than their reputation, survey suggest
Stephen Gadd
October 8th, 2018
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This article is more than 6 years old.
Consultants often come in for a bashing, but they can bring an extra, valuable layer of expertise to the table
Private consultants used by the public sector are rarely as bad as they are depicted (photo: pxhere/Waseem Farooq)
A new analysis released by the Dansk Erhverv chamber of commerce reveals that the majority of municipalities in Copenhagen are extremely satisfied with the work carried out on their behalf by consultancy firms.
Around 80 percent of municipal administration heads replied that they felt the firms gave value for money, and even more – 85 percent – expressed a very high level of satisfaction with the services provided by consultants.
“Our analysis shows that private consultants and advisors are valuable to the municipalities in Copenhagen,” said Daniel Møller Jensen from Dansk Erhverv.
Adding value
“It is very popular to criticise the public use of private consultants, but in fact they add professional resources that can be used in a flexible way, just as the specialised knowledge they have can help when it comes to finding new and better ways to carry out municipal tasks,” he added.
According to Jensen, the companies can help raise the level of the services provided by municipalities and show ways to get the most out of the taxpayer’s money.
“The figures also underline how important is it that the chamber, together with the consultancy businesses, continues to work to improve the visibility of the extra value consultants provide, as we know there is a lot of untapped potential in public-private co-operation,” concluded Jensen.
There is no doubt there is serious money in the work. In 2016, Danish municipalities spent 9.7 billion kroner hiring consultancy firms – an increase of 2.9 percent over two years.
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