The use of consulting firms is “usual and useful”, hammered two ministers during a long press conference on Wednesday, justifying this practice in response to a growing controversy after a senatorial report underlining a “sprawling phenomenon”. According to this report, the consulting expenditure of the ministries increased from 379.1 million euros in 2018, to 893.9 million euros in 2021.
“We did not divest ourselves of our responsibilities”
In response to fears of a dependence of the public authorities on certain consulting firms, the Minister of Transformation and the Civil Service Amélie de Montchalin recalled that “no consulting firm has decided on any reform and the decision is up to always in the state”. “We did not divest ourselves of our responsibilities,” she said. The practice is according to her “widespread”, “usual” and “useful” in the “majority of cases”.
There is also no interdependence between consulting firms and the State, for the Minister of Public Accounts Olivier Dussopt who affirmed, during the same press conference, that the use of consulting firms represented ” 0.3% of the total state wage bill”. More specifically, the McKinsey firm, in the spotlight because it is accused of not having paid corporate tax in France between 2011 and 2020, represents 5% of state strategy consulting expenditure, detailed Olivier Dussopt . And the government represents 5% of McKinsey’s turnover, he added.
“McKinsey’s tax situation is protected by tax secrecy, our services have carried out a control operation at the end of 2021”, said Minister Dussopt, refusing to comment on the outcome or the possible consequences of this control. “There is nothing to hide”, insisted Olivier Dussopt, who insisted that the State had shown “transparency” by answering questions from the Senate commission of inquiry on the growing influence of consulting firms. private.
“All the rules of public order have been respected”
“All the rules of public procurement have been respected,” added Amélie de Montchalin. If “the State assumes perfectly to use consulting firms in certain circumstances”, it admits that improvements are necessary, according to the minister. A new doctrine for the use of consultants was defined last January to ensure that the public services did not have the skills in-house before resorting to consulting firms. Amélie de Montchalin wants to “rearm the State to strengthen internal skills” and plans from 2022 to “reduce by at least 15% the use of external consulting services”.