Defence chiefs blow £91MILLION on experts as thousands of British troops face the axe
THE Ministry of Defence (MoD) forked out £91million of taxpayer money to pay for top consultants despite tens of thousands of troops being axed, it has been revealed.
The MoD has 2,395 financial staff and spent the mammoth sum on financial consultants and lawyers.
Defence bosses spent £10.4million on financial consultants and £17.8million on lawyers on top of its £26million legal budget.
For the MoD to be lavishing so much public money on ‘consultancy’ is scandalous
And an eye-watering £57million was spent on experts in areas such as “change management”.
But the Ministry’s liberal spending habits were branded “scandalous” as the ranks in Britain’s military forces shrink.
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The Army has reportedly cut 18,000 personnel in recent years, the RAF has dropped 6,000 and the Navy got rid of 3,000.
Andy Smith, chief of the UK National Defence Association, said: “For the MoD to be lavishing so much public money on ‘consultancy’ is scandalous.”
The scandal comes an investigation body threw out around 500 false claims of murder and assault by British troops in Iraq.
The Iraq Historic Allegations Team “screened out” the troops, meaning half of the 3,367 claims will not be pursued by lawyers.