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Consulting firms: on the grill of the Senate commission of inquiry, Amélie de Montchalin promises lower spending

2022-01-19T19:01:35.168Z


Some explanations from the minister on the management of the health crisis did not convince the senators.


Does the state make excessive use of the analyzes of private consulting firms?

This is the question around which the members of the “

Commission of Inquiry into the Growing Influence of Private Consulting Firms on Public Policy

” revolve.

Over the course of their hearings in the Senate, they are trying in particular to determine whether they have played too important a role in certain sequences of the management of the health crisis.

Faced with these questions, the Minister of Transformation and Public Service Amélie de Montchalin was heard on Wednesday.

Read alsoWhy do young engineers go to work in consulting firms?

The debate on consulting firms is "

often the subject of simplistic shortcuts in public debate

", regretted Amélie de Montchalin. However, she considered that it was necessary to “

recognize that such recourse has sometimes been too systematic and deserves to be framed and reflected

”. Thus, the minister promised that the expenses of the ministries with the cabinets would drop by 15% in 2022, confirming remarks made the same morning on Europe 1. A circular, expected at Matignon, must see the light of day soon to better frame these collaborations. “

Pro bono

” assignments

“, suspected of turning into a mission later, will have to be framed.

Before soliciting a firm, the administration must also be able to justify that it does not have enough qualified people internally to fulfill the mission in question.

Read alsoState management: the “pro bono” missions of consulting firms in the sights of deputies

If Amélie de Montchalin also made a point of stressing that “

in this five-year term, consulting expenses have not increased

”, these new framework proposals have challenged the deputies. If it is necessary to take measures, it is because they did not exist before, thus implied Éliane Assassi, senator of Seine-Saint-Denis and rapporteur of the commission. The Minister was asked to explain several missions granted to private firms. One in particular drew attention: a contract concluded with the firm McKinsey, for an amount of 496,000 euros, the purpose of which is to obtain an "

evaluation of developments in the teaching profession

".

Amélie de Montchalin thus specified that this mission was to fuel "

an important work

" by the Minister of Education, which was to culminate in April 2020 in a symposium on the future of the teaching profession.

Except that this conference was canceled due to the health crisis and never rescheduled.

However, it was used to produce a report on "

the teacher of the 21st century

", presented to the College de France in December 2021, insisted the minister.

140 million euros between 2018 and 2020

In concrete terms, the annual expenditure of the Interministerial Directorate for Public Transformation (DITP), which the ministry oversees, is “around

20 million per year

”, Amélie de Montchalin’s cabinet told AFP. The DGME, ancestor of the DITP, spent “

double

” each year during the Sarkozy presidency, we are assured from the same source.

Over the period 2018-2020, the consulting expenses of all the ministries amounted to an annual average of 140 million euros, further details the ministry. “

I will never fall into populism which would consist in saying 'never, never', the State would not need to seek an external vision, to seek a specific skill that it does not have

” , had also declared Amélie de Montchalin on Europe 1. “

The reform of the senior civil service will allow us to recruit experts, to create internal consulting firms and to do internally what was sometimes delegated to others

”.

The subject of the use by the State of consulting firms has gained visibility since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic.

According to figures put forward by MP Véronique Louwagie (LR) in February 2021, the Ministry of Health signed 28 contracts between March 2020 and January 2021 for a total of 11.353 million euros with seven consulting firms, as part of management of the health crisis.

Read alsoState management: a commission of inquiry to assess the role of consulting firms

Hearing Tuesday in the Senate, representatives of McKinsey, an American firm which had signed contracts with the Ministry of Health for four million euros, defended themselves from any decision-making role, in particular in the definition of the French vaccine policy.

A vision also hammered out by Laurent Benarousse, partner at Roland Berger, Gilles Bonnenfant and Claudia Montero, from Eurogroup Consulting, as well as Guillaume Charlin and Jean-Christophe Gard from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), during their hearing this Wednesday.

Is the system working well?

I think

so, ”supported Laurent Benarousse.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-01-19

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