A TASK group investigating the employment of consultants over the past two years at Bromsgrove District Council has reported that their use was excessive and they had been hired in a "haphazard" way.

The consultants task group, formed of five councillors, also considered ways of controlling consultant use in future.

Group chairman Councillor Dennis Norton said he was pleased with the way members worked and believed they had done a thorough job.

"Some officers were forthcoming, others were not quite so. There was excessive use of consultants, instead of officers trying to solve it first, consultants were just brought in. It is important to have control," he said.

The group gave questionnaires to heads of service and also looked at a variety of background information.

Senior officers were also questioned to establish what processes were used in considering the possible use of consultants.

In its findings the group said any head of service who had employed consultants had been able to do so without any checks being in place. But it was acknowledged a significant amount of consultancy work undertaken for the authority over the past year had been due to the voluntary engagement/recovery process.

The group said it also wanted to discourage the practice used by financial services where consultants' fees were not included in its budget, but money was drawn from balances instead. Councillors were concerned over the haphazard way that the hiring of consultants had been approached by the authority in the past and the lack of member involvement and monitoring at any stage of the process. The group also felt the council should not continually use one firm of consultants, but be mindful of best value and value for money.

The task group came up with four recommendations and these will now go to cabinet.