they were therefore arguing about which committees and sub-committees to set up to find out why the committees and sub-committees already existing under , for example , the auspices of the united nations , had so far produced a zero return on the investment involved ; such investment , said the prime minister , consisting mainly of the obscenely exorbitant salaries and fees paid each year to a few thousand bureaucrats and their assistants , and of the even more obscene sums of money paid to the consultants they hired to mitigate their personal ignorance and lack of competence .