01674pab a2200169 454500008004000000100001600040245003900056260000900095300001400104362000800118520117300126650002601299773004801325909001001373999001701383952010401400180718b2002   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aDent, Helen  aConsultants and the public service  c2002  ap.108-13.  aMar  aGovernments, as well as the community at large, need disinterested analysis and advice.  It is important that governments are advised on the options for and against intervention in what some perceive as wrongs, and the potential and likely costs as well as the benefits to the whole community of such interventions.  When the Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration (RCAGA) was set up, most of this advice came from `official sources': principally the Commonwealth Public Service, supplemented by official bodies such as the Tariff Board and the Bureau of Agricultural Economics.  RCAGA was concerned about the narrowness of Australian policy discourse (especially in relation to economic policy), and explored several avenues for widening it.  Ironically, these possibilities did not include what has turned out to be a very significant alternative to official sources: the use of outside consultants.  This paper reviews the growing use of consultants in government, starting from the concerns of RCAGA, and exploring the institutionalisation of `outside' advice, and the impact of this on the capacity of the public service to advise. - Reproduced.  aPublic administration  aAustralian Journal of Public Administration  a52150  c52150d52150  00104070aIIPAbIIPAd2018-07-19hVolume no: 61, Issue no: 1pAR52580r2018-07-19w2018-07-19yAR