RNZ-TVNZ merger consultants pocket $6k weekly
Private consultants working on the public media mega-merger are on contracts worth up to almost $9000 a week, and an average of almost $6000 a week.
The Government has $40 million to spend on the transition of RNZ and TVNZ into one entity, and at least a quarter of that is going on contractors.
The bill for 17 of the largest contracts for individual jobs is almost $4m, on top of the $5m for the largest single contractor working on the transition, Deloitte.
An OIA response from the Ministry for Culture and Heritage shows the most costly weekly contract for a programme director is $393,000 over 44 weeks, or $8900 a week.
A change management leader is on an $8000-a-week contract.
Most contracts are worth $5000-$6000 a week, with an administrator the cellar-dweller on just $2900.
All 17 have been hired through recruitment firms.
TVNZ’s staff average pay was about $2100 a week last year and RNZ’s $1700 in 2020-21. These amounts were skewed upwards by high amounts earned by small numbers of staff.
Most of the merger contracts are running for 30-40 weeks up until next month, though the ministry said some would likely be extended.
RNZ requested to know only about those contracts worth more than $100,000.
The ministry said it was about to let a new $100,000-plus contract to find executives to head the merged entity.
The new entity will be established legally in March 2023 and get its first government funding next July of $109m a year for three years.
With the addition of advertising income, total revenue is expected to be about $400m a year.
“All contractors were sourced through the All of Government recruitment panel,” the ministry said in the OIA.
The panel is designed to promote consistency in terms and conditions for contracts between 41 recruitment agencies and 179 government agencies, for common jobs in administration, IT and services.
How the panel runs is being overhauled. But the switch from a percentage-based pricing model to a fixed-fee model sparked industry concerns about “unintended consequences”, so officials called a pause, and then issued a revised tender last month.
“It is standard public service practice that contractors are utilised where the existing workforce do not have the capacity or specialist expertise to deliver major new initiatives,” said the ministry’s policy and sector performance deputy chief executive Emily Fabling.
“The rates paid reflect the skills required and all-of-government procurement guidelines.”
The ministry declined an interview.
Public media researcher Dr Peter Thompson said he was not aware Deloitte had a track record in establishing public media entities, unlike its record on business, accounting and management.
“The Government’s employment of big consultancy firms often has as much to do with the desire to imbue public policy initiatives with some sort of corporate veneer of legitimacy as it does with delivering effective policy outcomes,” Thompson said.