BUSINESS/REX TILLERSON/STATE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “It was one of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s core goals: radically reshaping the State Department to make it leaner, cheaper and modernized to the standards of a former private-sector CEO. Now that Tillerson has been fired, the vaunted ‘Redesign’ initiative he launched faces an uncertain future, but at least one clear legacy: around $12 million spent just for private consultants who in some cases charged the State Department more than $300 an hour. The figures, included in materials obtained by POLITICO and confirmed in part by a State Department spokesperson, have not previously been reported. Most of the money has gone to the consulting firm Deloitte as part of a pre-existing federal contract whose ceiling was lifted to $265 million, an indication of the redesign’s ambitions. As many as 90 consultants worked on the project, according to one document. Many of the consultants have spent extensive time at the State Department, meeting with top officials, collecting and analyzing data, creating PowerPoint presentations and leading group discussions with skeptical employees.”
–Nahal Toosi, “Rex Tillerson’s $12 million army of consultants,” Politico, April 5, 2018 5:00 am