The Government's total annual outsourcing expenditure dropped 30% from $66 billion in 2002 to $46 billion in last year, the Efficiency Unit says.

It attributed the fall to a reduction in public works projects. For works contracts, the annual outsourcing expenditure fell from $53 billion to $33 billion.

For non-works contracts, the annual outsourcing expenditure rose 7% from $13 billion to $14 billion.

According to the results of the unit's third biennial survey on government outsourcing, 71 government bureaux and departments were engaged in outsourcing activities on August 1.

There were 4,512 contracts with a total contract value of more than $214 billion in August. The corresponding figure in the similar survey conducted in December, 2002, was 4,855 contracts with $199 billion contract value.