(Ottawa) Violations of federal government procurement policies have occurred frequently in the awarding of contracts to McKinsey since 2011, notes the Auditor General in her latest report. The consulting firm was awarded 97 contracts worth 209 million, the majority of which were awarded without competitive bidding.
Absence of documents to justify the need for a contract, non-existent cost assessment, lack of supervision of the work carried out by the firm, the Ministry of Public Services and Supply which does not play its role…
These findings recall those already made by Karen Hogan in her report in February on the application ArriveCAN. The Auditor General also issues a single recommendation on Tuesday concerning conflicts of interest and invites ministries and state corporations to review her previous recommendations on the awarding of contracts. She suggests that they proactively identify “real or apparent conflicts of interest” and keep this declaration in the purchasing file.
This audit was carried out at the request of the House of Commons Government Operations Committee which had examined the professional services contracts awarded to McKinsey. The former big boss of the firm, Dominic Barton, defended himself before the committee in February 2023 from having privileged links with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Auditor General examined the 97 contracts awarded to the consulting firm between 2011 and 2023, a period that covers both the last mandate of the Conservative government of Stephen Harper and the subsequent mandates of the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau. She specifies that 200 million were spent out of their total value of 209 million.
Mme Hogan finds that nine of ten federal departments and agencies and eight of ten crown corporations that awarded contracts to McKinsey “failed in at least one aspect of their procurement policies and guidelines for at least one contract.” She cites as an example a call for tenders process for which the evaluation of the bids was insufficient to support this choice. In other cases, justification for bypassing the tender process was not provided.
Further details will follow.