Management consultants and the social function of procurement

IMPACTCurrent procurement practices fail to deliver the accountability expected by the public for consulting expenditure and influence on government. This article offers a revised conceptual basis for the procurement of consultants, which the authors argue is an essential step to confronting this failure. Existing procurement practices must look beyond market transactions to include new approaches that bring oversight to the deeply-entwined relationships between these actors. These new approaches must be considered in more relational terms that give due weight to their function in the consultant–policy-maker relationship.