WASA racks up project consultancy costs

More than £5 million has been spent on outside consultants by the government in the last six years.

Hyder Consulting Limited is employed by a number of departments, including the Water and Sewerage Authority and Manx Electricity Authority.

Over £3million, or 58%, of the overall sum was spent by the Water Authority which consults on engineering, and employs the company to project manage the Regional Sewerage strategy.

In the last nine months, the government has outsourced £670,000 worth of work - 92% of which was consultancy for WASA.

Expenses by other departments include consultancy on drainage engineering, highway engineering, and housing design planning.