The Construction Industry Training Board has spent more than £16m over the last three years on external contractors and consultants.
The revelation is contained in a Freedom of Information request seen by the Enquirer.
And it comes as the CITB is in the middle of plans to outsource even more operations under a services contract worth £300m to the winners.
The FoI request shows the skills body spent £10.3m with Capita and £6.2m with Fujitsu during the period.
The Capita cash consisted of £2m spent on consultancy with the rest paid to other contractors via the outsourcing giant who the Government make CITB use as a payment conduit.
The Fujitsu millions went on specialist technical, software and development support.
CITB currently employs 1,370 staff which will be reduced to fewer than 600 under its Vision 2020 outsourcing plan.
One CITB insider said: “The industry needs to know where its levy money is being spent.
“The current outsourcing plans are so big that only firms the size of Capita can really bid for them.
“Everyone saw the result of outsourcing with Carillion but the CITB is hell bent on taking that path.”
Adrian Beckingham, Change Director at CITB, said: “CITB is delivering a reform programme to provide greater value to construction employers across Great Britain.
“In order to do that, like many other government and public sector bodies, where we do not have in-house technical capacity we have called on the expertise of contractors.
“This includes anything from IT support to health and safety translation services.
“Cabinet Office rules require us to pay contractors through a government procurement programme run by Capita.
“This means that, while we have do use Capita to provide support, the majority of funds ultimately are paid to other companies.
“Using contractors is at times essential for us to meet the needs of industry and we will continue to do so where appropriate.”
Civil engineering contractor Crummock has collapsed with the loss of nearly 300 jobs.
Matt Henderson and Donald McNaught at Johnston Carmichael have been appointed as joint receivers for a trio of companies that form the group.
They are now dealing with the receiverships of Crummock (Scotland) Ltd, Crummock Holdings Ltd and Crummock Ltd.
The privately-owned contractor ceased trading today and 287 employees of the business have been made redundant as a result.
Crummock, which operated out of Bonnyrigg just south east of Edinburgh city centre, offered a wide range of civil engineering and surfacing construction expertise including groundworks, infrastructure works, roadworks and road surfacing.
The firm has worked on a range of landmark developments including the Donaldson school residential development in Edinburgh, Fort Kinnaird Retail Park and Shawfair – a major drainage infrastructure project south east of the city.
Matt Henderson said: “Crummock is a long-established construction business which, like many in the industry, has suffered from reduced margins in recent times.
“In recent months it has also encountered cashflow difficulties due to high retention levels, the tight margins within the sector and business specific issues.”
“Unfortunately, the business was unable to raise the capital to enable it to overcome the current financial challenges it faces and we are now dealing with creditors’ claims.”
Latest results for Crummock (Scotland) Ltd show that for the year to March 31 2017 it made a pre-tax profit of £596,000 from a turnover of £23.8m.
Crummock managing director Derek Hogg is also chairman of trade body CECA Scotland but will now be stepping down from the roles.
CECA Scotland Chief Executive Grahame Barn said: “This is a sad day for the civil engineering sector in Scotland and comes at a time when there is little sign of optimism for future workload growth in the sector and SMEs in particular are facing significant challenges.
“Our thoughts are with all the directors, employees and creditors of that company at this very difficult time.
“CECA Scotland will be actively involved in supporting everyone impacted through this very challenging period.
“Regrettably, this announcement means that Derek Hogg will be stepping down as CECA Scotland Chairman and we have already taken steps to ensure a smooth transition to allow the activities of CECA Scotland to continue as normal.”
