I see this as a major problem. Aside from reducing the technical capability if the standing force, there is additional cost in having contractors along with the risk issues if we actually have to go to war. Then there is the higher salary and then someone is making a profit on the arrangements . There is certainly a space for contract work for non core like cleaning and gardening but outsourcing ongoing continued technical work is just lazy management. even specific IT capabilities shouldn’t be outsourced.
Defence’s contractor army continues to grow.
Defence’s contractor army continues to grow — The Australian
6:33PM SEPTEMBER 25, 2023
Defence’s outsourced workforce has risen to a record 37,330 under the Albanese government as the size of the uniformed force continues to flatline.
The latest external workforce census, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, reveals the number of outsourced workers engaged by the department rose by 7 per cent in the year to March 2023.
Defence’s external workforce is now 18 per cent bigger than the largest uniformed service, the Australian Army, and more than twice as big as the department's public service workforce.
The survey shows the number of
contractors engaged by the department was up 3 per cent to 8523, but
consultants were down 2 per cent to 361.
The number of personnel employed through outsourced service providers, who do the lion’s share of equipment maintenance, property management and IT tasks, was up 9 per cent to 28,445.
The rate of growth in the overall external workforce was in line with the March 2022 survey, but the rise in contractor numbers – considered the most problematic category – was well under the previous year’s increase of 22 per cent. The continued expansion of Defence’s outsourced workforce, which includes nearly 1000 more contract employees in its acquisition and sustainment arm, comes as the government tries to rein in use of contractors and consultants.
“Defence will reduce reliance on external labour by reducing the number of contractors we engage to conduct work that would normally be undertaken within the Australian public service,” a Defence spokeswoman said.
She said Defence made $145m in savings in 2022-23 from reducing expenditure on external labour, advertising, travel and legal expenses.
Defence is aiming to convert 2000 external labour positions into public servants by the end of 2024, and has committed to increasing the size of its permanent workforce – including uniformed personnel – by 18,500 by 2040.
Strategic Analysis Australia research director Marcus Hellyer said Defence would struggle to bring those with in-demand technical skills into the public service, because as contractors they could command much higher salaries. “Why would they come back into the public service?” he said.
Dr Hellyer said the department, which over the years had worked to slash its public service workforce, paid a steep premium for contract labour, with the average cost of a contractor $290,000 a year compared to $140,000 for a public servant.
He said the slowing rate of contractor growth was “probably a good thing”, but questioned “who is doing the work?”. “Is the work now not being done? Because Defence has not recruited a similar number of public servants and ADF personnel.”
Dr Hellyer said growing demands for personnel to deliver Defence’s big procurement programs, such as the AUKUS submarines and guided weapons enterprise, would make it difficult for the government to deliver on its promise to slash contractor numbers. “We’re setting up the nuclear submarine enterprise with the Australian submarine agency – that’s hundreds and hundreds of jobs,” he said.
“Some of them are public servants, but they’re being sucked out of other jobs in Defence and other agencies, so they’ll need to be backfilled.”
The size of Defence’s uniformed workforce has fallen over the past three years but been largely static over the past decade.
The latest figures follow a 2021 independent review of Defence’s use of contractors, which warned the department was failing to fully test the market, and “does not have any visibility over the cost-of-service delivery and the margins being realised”.
The Australian revealed last month Defence had handed out $4.6bn in contracts since 2018 to
an exclusive club of companies hand-picked by the government.
www.abc.net.au
