As an official, I was part of the group of people who were charged with designing ways and means in which the government could be more open. I learned something from that process.
There are two ways in which you consult. One is that you consult in order to improve your technical base, the knowledge you need in order to move forward. These are consultations on “how”, and civil servants are very well equipped to do that.
There is another kind of consultation. It is based on whether you should do it, the “why”. Civil servants can't do that; only politicians can do that. It's a political question and it must be addressed by either the minister or by parliamentarians.
Sometimes civil society grows confused about the two kinds of consultations. The how and the why consultations are not the same, and the same people cannot pursue both of them.