A declaration every year by the head of the civil service would list all contracts and consultancies, cost them exactly, state their purpose and disclose overspends, delays and systems failures.
The software subsidiaries of the big computer makers, for instance, charge about $400 a day for a programmer; experienced staff at IBM or the big global consultancies cost more than ten times this amount.That leaves the Japanese houses with no money for marketing or hiring the sort of experienced staff who might persuade their clients to pay more.
The government hired NERA, a consultancy, to cost a workfare scheme proposed by two backbench MPs.
According to Aviation Economics, a London consultancy, low-cost carriers get 11 hours flying per day out of each aircraft, compared with only about nine hours for a network carrier.Recently, American Airlines, which invented the hub-and-spoke system, has been squeezing more flying hours out of each aircraft by spreading connections over a longer period.
In the Journal of Power Sources, Ralph Brodd and Carlos Helou, who work for two big energy consultancies, modelled the cost of lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells produced by hand and by automated assembly.
"The aggregate amount of pension savings is inadequate," says Roger Urwin of Towers Watson, a consultancy.Estimating the cost of pension provision has proved enormously difficult.
Eden McCallum, which was founded in London in 2000, can tap into a network of 500 freelance consultants in order to offer consulting services at a fraction of the cost of big consultancies like McKinsey.
The Gartner Group, another IT consultancy, puts the cumulative cost at between $150 billion and $400 billion.One reason for these wide ranges is uncertainty about what will be needed.
For most apartment buildings and cooperatives with higher-income residents, the meter bill will probably be less expensive than the flat rate, said Alan Rothschild, president of the Vantage Group, a water cost management consultancy in Middlesex County, N.J.
McKinsey, a business consultancy, drew a cost-curve (see chart 3) for projects to cut carbon emissions.
The central government's share has risen to more than £6 billion, she said, due mainly to rising construction costs, consultancy fees and a supposedly unforeseen tax bill.
