MBIE to cut back on multimillion dollar consultants bill

Officials under fire for spending millions of dollars on outside contractors have told the government they will cut it back. A leaked spreadsheet shows the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment doubling its spending on contractors in four years. It also shows a quadrupling of the number of non-employees being paid more than $200,000 a year. The ministry has suggested this is 'raw data' that has errors in it.