Consulting firms, including McKinsey, were crushed by the Senate

Arnt Weekman via Reuters

Politics – On Thursday, March 17, a Senate panel of investigators accused McKinsey’s French companies of failing to pay any corporate taxes between 2011 and 2020, a tax reform.

If the U.S. company is isolated, the Senate said in this report there is a much broader concern about the proliferation of governments for these private companies. With two key questions: their costs and the influence of these private companies in public decision making.

The event “does not begin under this five-year period”, recognizes senators. However, this was significantly increased under President Emmanuel Macron, who was close to McKinsey’s cabinet before he was elected. The world. With ever-increasing cost to public funds.

4 million euros for APL reform

“According to elements sent by the Ministries, the average cost per day of (a) consultant is 1528 euros, including tax for the period 2018-2020,” the senators noted. On average, this can be very high, sometimes going beyond 3000 euros a day.

McKinsey has been priced at 3. 3.88 million for interfering in the reform of the Personalized Housing Assistance (APL) calculation system. 12.33 million euros for the vaccination campaign.

There are also some costly failures, not only for carts, but also for political tempo or even the most mysterious actions …

மெ McKinsey was paid மில்லியன் 4 million for APL reform that did not happen pic.twitter.com/dZEcOvk8hg

– Eliza Bran (லி Eliza Bran) March 17, 2022

McKinsey is not an isolated case. CapGemini was paid 12 3.12 million to help build the barometer with public action results. 290,000 euros, the Semaphores responsible for helping the provinces secure the distribution of the election campaign.

Overall, the consultative spending of ministries reached 3 893.9 million in 2021, up from 9 379.1 million in 2018.

Spending on public funds is not the only fear of senators. “Consulting firms have been involved in most of the major reforms of the five-year period,” he said, adding that they were concerned about the influence they could exert on public decision-making. Consulting firms are actually asking management to “have a habit of giving ‘priority’ to the proposed scenario”, which “strengthens their weight in public decision-making”.

The Commission is also concerned about the “bias” of public officials towards certain actors and begs that “transfer of skills from consulting firms to management” be done “more effectively”.

What are the solutions?

In their nineteen final proposals, MPs recommend publishing a list of services provided by the government and its operators in open data. They are in favor of a formal review of consulting services worth over ,000 150,000 and a ban on free services for public officials. Another trail: the systematic destruction of data handed over to companies, at the end of their work.

Finally, senators rely on the high authority for transparency in public life, and they want to strengthen its resources so that cabinets can control compliance with their ethical obligations. “The health crisis highlights the involvement of advisers in the conduct of public policy. It is only the tip of the iceberg,” the commission of inquiry said.

In mid-January, Prime Minister Jean Costex drew up a circular regulating the use of “intellectual services”. But it lacks “binding”, senators point out, and the goal of cutting consulting costs by 15% by 2022 is “unrealistic.”

A month later, under the pressure of the senators’ inquiry and the publication of the book Infiltrate (ed. Allary) On the power of the world of advisers, the government announced the creation of a state-of-the-art state advisory body headed by Ministerial Transformation and Public Service Amelie de Montzal. .

However, government spokesman Gabriel Attle speculated about the close relationship between the government and these private companies: He said in February.

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