Consultant Raj: 1,500, including from Big 4, in 44 govt depts; annual spend Rs 302 crore

Responding to an RTI application, the Department of Expenditure under the Union Ministry of Finance, said 76 departments provided information about those taken on contract — these could be consultants working with external agencies, Young Professionals, independent consultants, domain experts, personnel taken through outsourcing agencies, executives from PSUs, state-owned banks and regulatory bodies on loan, retired government employees, and those hired for housekeeping, multi-tasking, and data entry functions.

On October 4, in the run-up to Budget 2024-25, as The Indian Express had reported, the Department of Expenditure had written to all departments and ministries seeking this information stating this was “required for meaningful discussion for allocation of Budget under the Professional/ Office expenses/ Salary head”.

The top six departments which have most consultants from external agencies working with them are: Health and Family Welfare (203), Rural Development (166), Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (149), Ministry of Housing and Urban Administration (147), Women and Child Development (112) and Road Transport and Highway (99). Together, they account for 876 or 58 per cent of the total 1,499. The total expenditure of these departments/ ministries (barring Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, which has not provided the information) on consultants from external agencies is Rs 130 crore or 43 per cent of the total Rs 302 crore.

Among Young Professionals (YPs) hired on contract, NITI Aayog tops the list with 95 such YPs, followed by Commerce — 87 YPs and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade — 78 YPs. Among independent consultants hired on contract, the top three are: Agriculture and Farmers Welfare — 86, NITI — 52, and Road Transport and Highways — 41. Among Domain Experts hired on contract, the top three are: Agriculture and Farmers Welfare — 92, Civil Aviation — 70, and Rural Development — 45.

While departments and ministries, barring Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, provided information on remuneration paid to consultants from external agencies working with them, it is not clear about other positions. RTI data shows Young Professionals are mostly being paid around Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000.

Independent consultants and domain experts appointed by ministries and departments could be paid in the range of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4 lakh a month. The Ministry of Labour, for instance, said it paid Rs 7.5 lakh a month jointly to two consultants. Those hired by the Department of Commerce get between Rs 1.45 lakh and Rs 3.30 lakh per month; those hired by NITI Aayog get up to Rs 3.30 lakh a month.

After the government abolished Group D (peons, data entry, housekeeping, etc) recruitment, the personnel for such jobs are hired through outsourcing agencies, mostly through government-run GEM portal. There are 20,376 such personnel working in 76 departments — these include 3,877 housekeeping staff, 5,136 data entry operators, 6,478 multi-tasking staff and 4,885 others.