(ALBANY) - The New York Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) could have saved State Taxpayers $9.5 million last year if it had cut its dependence on costly Private Consultants by half and let its own Employees do the work instead.  That’s the finding of a new report released by the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), which represents 54,000 State Professional, Scientific and Technical Employees, and other Public and Private Employees - including more than 1,650 at the OCFS.

“New Yorkers cannot afford this irresponsible waste of their hard-earned dollars,” PEF President Ken Brynien said. “It’s high time the State Senate passed Bill (A5128-B/S3093A) that would require State Agencies to compare costs and use State Employees when they can do work more economically than Private Consultants.  Enacting this law, passed previously by the Assembly, would finally begin to bring down the quarter-of-a-billion dollars State Agencies are now wasting every year on Private Consultants”

The Consultant Spending Report at OCFS is the sixth in a series of such studies that PEF has released this Spring, all that have been aimed at spotlighting wasteful State Spending on Private Consultants.

The PEF Study found OCFS spent $161.7 million on Consultants in the State Fiscal Year that ended March 31st, an increase of 30% in just eight years.  According to the Study, in just the last two years, OCFS hiked its spending on consultants by 19% while cutting its own Workforce by 11%.  Last year, the agency paid a Private Contractor $163 per hour for the services of an Information System Manager.  That’s 106% more than OCFS pays its own Employees to do the work, even when you consider the cost of their Pensions and Benefits.

OCFS’ Prime Training Contractor, the Research Foundation of the State University of New York, has paid its Chief Executives up to $251-an-hour for short-term contracts.  That’s the equivalent of $488,000 a year.  On average, the Foundation’s Consultants with the title Chief Executive are paid $157-per-hour, or the equivalent of more than $307,500 a year.  That’s more than 50% higher than OCFS pays its own Commissioner, the Study determined.