ANU updates community on consultancy spending

Today the Australian National University’s Expenditure Taskforce provided an update to our community on consultancy engagements and expenditure. 

Key points from the update include: 

* ANU will update the way we report consultancy expenditure, so the data better reflects actual spending on these services.  

*Up until now, our budget categorisation of “consultancy” spending has been very broad. It’s included activities such as: 

• Education agent commissions (e.g. paid for the recruitment of international students) 

• Professional services to support research contracts 

• Professional services (e.g. audit, tax advisory) 

• Software development and support 

• Contractors engaged through third parties 

* This broad categorisation can result in misinterpretation and lack of clarity. 

* Improving how we define and classify spending on consultancies will enhance the accuracy of our budget analysis and forecasting.  

* It will also support the University to identify potential cost saving opportunities and enable more meaningful comparisons with similar organisations.  
 
* It will improve clarity and transparency for our community. 

* Consultancy reporting in the Annual Report will now be distributed across the following categories:  

• Contracted and professional services (this category is most reflective of actual consultancy spend, but also includes items such as insurance broking). 

• Research (e.g. consumables, training materials)  

• Commissions to agents 

* The $53.9 million in consultancy reported in the 2023 Annual Report, breaks down into the new categories as follows: