They don't intend to give up.
A week after the announcement of the opening of two judicial investigations by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), relating in particular to the "
conditions of intervention of consulting firms in the electoral campaigns
of 2017
and 2022
", the senators leave to load.
To discover
Prime Macron 2022: conditions, amount, date of payment... how does it work?
Several of them intend to table and then have an amendment adopted during the examination of the 2023 budget to force the executive to publish more information on the use of these private structures.
An approach which also comes a few days after Bruno Le Maire recognized "abuse" on the use of firms, such as McKinsey or Capgemini.
"
We had probably gotten too used to saying
'
the administration is not capable of doing this work, we will outsource and ask consulting firms
'", admitted the boss of Bercy at the end of November.
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McKinsey affair: "We have gone too far", admits Bruno Le Maire
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In its current wording, the 2023 draft budget already provides, in its article 40 decies, for the publication of a "
report on the use by the State of consultancy services provided by legal persons governed by private law or natural persons exercising individually
", over the last two years.
But the drafting is considered largely insufficient by the senators: it only covers two years and excludes a number of services, by imposing numerous restrictions linked to the "
secrecy of national defense, the conduct of France's foreign policy, the State security [...] and business secrecy
", for example.
It also excludes markets
that the Minister concerned deems it necessary not to disseminate within the framework of the protection of the scientific and technical heritage of the Nation
”.
In addition, purchase orders are not published and certain administrative and public authorities are not concerned.
“
It would thus be much more difficult to reconstruct the overall bill for consulting services
”, annoy the elected representatives of the upper house.
The amendment to the 2023 finance bill, carried by senators Arnaud Bazin (LR) and Éliane Assassi (CRCE), therefore aims to "
establish true transparency in consulting services
", summarizes the subject of the text.
Already at the origin of the sulphurous report last March on the use of consulting firms, the two elected officials want a document including "
the list of consulting services provided over the past five years, for consideration
" to be published by Public powers.
A way to enhance transparency, they believe, on a subject that continues to spark controversy.
Towards a review of the bill in 2023?
This new initiative may come as a surprise, given that a bill aimed at better regulating the use of consulting firms has already been adopted unanimously by the Senate in mid-October.
However, one of its articles proposes precisely to create a document annexed to the budget listing, each year, “
the consulting services ordered by the beneficiary administrations during the last five years
”.
But since then, the executive has not included this text on the agenda of the National Assembly, and its examination has therefore not advanced, regret the senators.
In addition, the amendments proposed by Minister Stanislas Guérini during the examination of the text in the Senate demonstrated the desire of the executive "
to weaken, if not
The elected officials therefore wish to maintain the pressure on the executive, and twist its arm so that it quickly registers their text on the menu of the deputies.
The amendment to the 2023 budget, which takes up the wording of the "
transpartisan text adopted by the Senate on October 18
", will also allow everyone to get out of the woods, explains Senator LR: the various political groups, including the presidential majority, will have to position itself on it, and the executive will have to choose whether or not to keep it in the final version of the text if it passes thanks to the use of 49-3.
Read alsoHow the consulting firm McKinsey would have escaped corporate tax in France
In addition, if the executive claims to want to be transparent, the data recently published by the government in a yellow budget appended to the 2023 budget does not satisfy the senators.
This document in fact excludes "
on the one hand the services provided by public bodies, including in particular establishments under the supervision of the State, and on the other hand the services of external consultants in the IT field
", which weigh heavily in the total.
A way to lighten the final bill.
"
It's very partial, incomplete, there's nothing about IT consulting,
" sighs Arnaud Bazin.
"
We haven't given up on anything for several months.
“, Recalls the elected LR, who hopes to see the Senate’s transpartisan bill be examined by the National Assembly “
in the course of the first half of 2023
”.
