Feds disregard rules when awarding McKinsey contracts: auditor general

According to a new report for Canada’s auditor general, federal government organizations frequently disregard the rules when awarding contracts to consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Federal departments, organizations and Crown corporations awarded $209 million worth of contracts to the American consulting firm, McKinsey, between 2011 and Feb. 2023.

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Of that money, all but around $8.6 million was spent by the current liberal government. $55 million was spent just from 2021 to 2022.

The report from Auditor General Karen Hogan reviewed the 97 contracts and found that government organizations under both liberals and conservatives often disregarded rules when awarding them.

The leader of the opposition Pierre Poilievre questioned the prime minister during question period on Tuesday.

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Hogan said, “We found that organizations awarding the contracts showed a frequent disregard for federal contracting and procurement policy and guidance. We also found that each organization’s own practices often failed to show value for money.”

Poilievre said, “It’s $200 million Canadian tax dollars for this one company. 90 per cent of those contracts didn’t follow government rules, 70 per cent of them without a competitive process. 100 per cent of them with the NDP voting in their favour? Mr. speaker, will the prime minister vow now, no more money for McKinsey?”

Trudeau said, “Obviously the tax payers deserve to get value for money, which is why we have strengthened our oversights in the measures whereby organizations grant contracts to consultations. We’ve reduced those numbers.”

While the report notes a dramatic increase in spending on McKinsey’s consulting services it’s a small drop in the bucket compared to overall consulting fees paid by the liberal government.

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The report notes that when the liberals first came to power, the government was spending $4.5 billion on consultants, and that jumped to $8.4 billion by 2022.