One of the world's biggest IT consultants, Bearing Point, has received over €10m worth of government consultancy contracts since January 2007. The vast majority of these were from the beleaguered Department of Social Welfare to revamp its IT system to cope with the increasing number of people joining the dole queue.

This makes the global company ? formerly known as KPMG Consulting ? the most successful in securing lucrative government consultancy contracts, according to a Sunday Tribune review of consultancy costs across all government departments since January 2007.

Most of the €10.5m paid to Bearing in the last 12 months was for three contracts worth €4m, €4.1m and €2.2m with Mary Hanafin's social-welfare department. Not far behind Bearing is Hewlett Packard, which received fractionally short of €6m for three contracts from the department.

Payments by Social Welfare to Fujitsu of €3.2m and to Bayberry of over €1m for IT consultancy services also put these two companies into the top 10 of consultants used by government.

It also means that in the last 12 months alone, Hanafin's department, which is already creaking under the pressure of social-welfare claimants, has spent over €20m on IT consultants.

Last year, finance minister Brian Lenihan urged all departments to cut expenditure on consultants, who received almost €77m in 2008. A target for €54m has been set for this year.

While IT consultants dominate the top 10, the banking crisis has also turned into a cash cow for financial and legal consultants hired to help Lenihan deal with the deepening crisis.

Perched in second place on the rich list is international financial consultancy Merrill Lynch, which is on track to be paid a massive €6m for advising the government on the banking crisis.

The country's biggest law firm, Arthur Cox, has already received almost €4m from Lenihan for advice.

The company can expect to substantially increase that consultancy income as it has been appointed as an adviser to Nama in its efforts to clean up the €90bn of toxic bank debts.

PWC Consulting has also been paid over €4m in consultancy fees for advice on the banks, bringing the total paid to consultants on the deepening banking crisis to over €10m and rising.

Other consultants in the top 10 list include RPS Consulting, which made almost €3.3m from nine consultancy contracts over the last two and a half years, the majority from a €2.4m contract to advise the Department of the Environment on a waste plan.

Accenture received €2.5m for five projects from the Department of Social Welfare for work on its IT problems.

Murray Consultants is the next most beneficial recipient of government contracts. It received €2.1m for three projects, the single biggest being a €1.8m contract to advise the Department of Defence on its Emergency Planning booklet launch.

PR consultants Q4 and McConnell's Advertising made just over €1m and €773,000 respectively, the vast majority for PR advice to transport minister Noel Dempsey on the launch of Transport 21.

Indecon and Goodbody received the most contracts, with 13 different contracts each since January 2007. But in terms of total value they were worth only €697,000 and €655,019, respectively.