Persistent efforts to wean municipalities off their reliance on consultants are bearing fruit. Quarterly figures from Statistics SA show that, as of March 30, municipalities were spending less than the R1-billion splurged on consultants in the year to the end of June 2014.By March 30, municipalities countrywide had spent R428-million on consultants. In comparison, they spent R737-million in the corresponding period the year before.At the end of that year, consultants had raked in R1.16-billion for services that Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan believes amounted to "unnecessary duplication".Consultants have been in the government's sights since at least October 2013, when then finance minister Gordhan ordered state departments to cut spending on consultants.The government's cost-containment measures came into effect in January last year.In October of that year, Gordhan's successor, Nhlanhla Nene, vowed to freeze or cut spending, including money, about R370-million, that would have been splurged on consultants to local authorities.The SA Local Government Association failed to respond to questions about why municipalities relied so heavily on consultants, but indications are that most of the consultants render financial management services.But Gordhan has pointed out that municipalities pay their own officials to fulfil financial management responsibilities.Gordhan and auditor-general Kimi Makwetu have both raised concerns about the use of consultants, with Makwetu revealing that government auditors were forced to correct 80% of the financial statements prepared by consultants on behalf of municipalities.Immediately after his appointment as national overseer of local government, after the 2014 general election, Gordhan suggested that consultants might simply be milking the state."Why do these consultants get paid?" he asked. "What are they doing in municipalities and why are they contributing to undermining our municipal financial performance as opposed to actually assisting?"..