“It’s a sprawling phenomenon that makes you dizzy”, estimated Thursday March 31 on franceinfo Arnaud Bazin, senator Les Républicains du Val d’Oise and president of the Senate commission of inquiry on external cabinets. According to this commission, the government spent nearly one billion euros in 2021 to provide the services of private consulting firms, which helped it, in particular in the management of the epidemic. The McKinsey firm is particularly singled out, accused by the commission of not paying taxes in France. During a press conference on Wednesday, the Minister for the Transformation of the Public Service, Amélie de Montchalin, accompanied by Olivier Dussopt, the Minister of Public Accounts, tried to justify these expenses and denounced “the increasingly strong and cruder attacks”. A demining operation a few days before the first round of the presidential election. “It is a permanent minimization operation. The government has still not understood that the phenomenon questions the whole of society”says Arnaud Bazin.
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franceinfo: Has the government reassured you?
Arnaud Bazin: I was very surprised by such a rather contradictory demining operation, moreover. We send two ministers. We do this in a hurry. And at the same time, we accept most of the Senate’s proposals, saying “The Senate is right, we will do it”. And then, when you hear questions from journalists, it’s a permanent minimization operation. The government has still not understood that the phenomenon questions the whole of society. It is a sprawling phenomenon that makes you dizzy.
The government says that the tendering procedures have been followed to the letter, that they are transparent. You agree ?
These tender procedures are not transparent. We had communication of the purchase orders within the framework of these contracts and we had communication of the deliverables to a certain extent. But that’s only because we have special powers as a commission of inquiry. The public does not have access to all this. Why ? Because these markets are passed in what are called framework agreements which consist in validating service providers. And once the service providers are validated, there is nothing more public, that is to say that the purchase orders are not public, nor are the payments that are made afterwards. These procedures are not transparent. This is what we said in the report and we want there to be publicity for these purchase orders.
“These procedures are not illegal. They are not transparent. It is different.”
Arnaud Bazin, Senator LR and Chairman of the Senate Inquiry Committeeat franceinfo
In your report, you claim that McKinsey has not paid corporation tax for ten years, which it now denies. Who is right ?
What is said is not denied. We, we went to the tax services and to have us confirm what we had in writing from them, namely that McKinsey Company and McKinsley SAS, the two main companies, in any case, the two identified by Bercy at our request , have not paid a euro of tax for the past ten years. It is an established fact. So now, we are being told of another company whose turnover or profits we do not even know, which would have paid a little corporate tax? It’s really not caring about the world. We asked a question and we got a clear answer from the tax services. There is no denial on McKinsey Company and McKinsey SAS from McKinsey, so the facts are established.