You couldn't make it up.
From the Torygraph:
Ministry of Defence pays millions to rehire sacked civilians
Thousands of civilians sacked by the Ministry of Defence have been re-employed as consultants at “dreadful cost to the taxpayer”, MPs have found.
While the department is in the process of cutting almost 30,000 civil servants, it has rehired many to carry out work as private contractors, according to a report by the public accounts committee.
This has led to the bill for outside consultancy to spiral from £6 million in 2007 to £270 million last year. The report said that the extra cost of re-employing staff as consultants represented “dreadful value for the taxpayer”.
Ministry of Defence pays millions to rehire sacked civilians - Telegraph