Details from an anonymous Official Information Act request, supplied to the Otago Daily Times, reveals the total spending on consultants had increased from $7.035 million in 2018 to $9.62m in 2022.
In total, there had been about $41.1m spent on consultants during this period.
Of the expenditure on consultants, about 28.9% related to capital projects, 4.5% to audit fees, 7.2% to legal fees and 59.4% to "other consultant fees".
The request asked for all external consultants hired by the university and the total amount spent between 2018 and 2022.
Taxpayers’ Union investigations co-ordinator Oliver Bryan, whose group filed a similar OIA request, said the increase was concerning given the university’s well-documented financial troubles.
"Acting vice-chancellor Prof Helen Nicholson’s recent comments about the need for ‘hard decisions’ to ensure university’s future sustainability is clearly contradicted by the exorbitant spending on consultancy services.
"It is concerning that the university, having just made over 100 redundancies and experiencing a decline in enrolments this year, continues to rack up millions of dollars in consultancy fees.
"The responsible use of public funds must be the top priority, especially when the institution’s financial sustainability is in question.
"It’s time for the University of Otago to re-evaluate its spending habits and prioritise the wellbeing of its staff and the responsible stewardship of public resources," Mr Bryan said.
Prof Nicholson said the university had several large projects requiring specialist services over this period, including the upgrade of its customer relationship service management system, development of a new website, specialist property and building consultants for seismic assessments of university buildings (including responding to the requirement for its Wellington campus buildings to be vacated) and areas of revenue development post-Covid.
The expenditure also related to several major capital projects, including expansion and upgrade of the Dental School and associated Dental Teaching Hospital, the Performing Arts Centre, the Eccles Building, a biomedical research and containment facility, and the new Te Rangihiroa College.
Prof Nicholson said all areas of the university were under review, including the annual spend on consultancy services.
"The University of Otago takes its role as a publicly-funded institution extremely seriously and is mindful of the need to spend public funding wisely," she said.
"Expenditure of $41m over five years, measured against revenue over the same period, represents less than 1% of revenue being spent on the wide range of services covered by this expenditure category.
"Given the broad range of specialist expertise and independent advice they provide, we consider the amount spent on consultants over this period to be reasonable."
