First fallout, several months after the McKinsey affair?
This Thursday, the Minister of Transformation and Public Service, Stanislas Guerini, announces several measures concerning consulting firms with AFP, and promises "transparency".
"A ceiling per mission of two million euros will be given, where in the previous system there was no particular ceiling per mission", advanced the minister, who must publish this Friday a new framework for appeal by the to consulting firms for the period 2023-2027.
Services whose cost exceeds this ceiling will have to be the subject of a separate call for tenders, a procedure that the ministry hopes will be restrictive enough to convince the ministries to give up overly onerous missions.
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McKinsey: the government defends itself against disproportionate use of consulting firms
The Minister also wishes to limit the use of the same private service provider to a maximum of two consecutive contracts.
In the event that a service provider is chosen to carry out two missions in a row, their cumulative cost must not exceed the ceiling of 2 million euros.
More transparency… except in certain cases
In a highly critical report, two senators last March described the state's use of consulting firms as a “sprawling” phenomenon.
The cost of most of the consulting assignments identified by Éliane Assassi (CRCE group with a communist majority) and Arnaud Bazin (Les Républicains) generally amounted to tens or hundreds of thousands of euros, below the new ceiling of 2 million so.
The two parliamentarians tabled a bill in June largely inspired by their report, which the minister promises to also submit to the National Assembly, since he considers it "complementary" to the new framework about to be published. .
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In total, over the period 2018-2022, the State spent 226 million (excluding taxes) on consulting services "in strategy, organization and operational efficiency", detailed Stanislas Guerini.
Under the new rules, the state wants to limit its consultancy spending to 150 million euros between 2023 and 2027, “with a maximum cap of 200 million euros in case of need”.
The State will also undertake to publish “mission by mission” the amounts involved, the sponsor, the service provider and the title of the service, specified the member of the government.
"If there must be non-publication, it is for reasoned reasons" such as "defense interests", has however already qualified Stanislas Guerini.
