President Macron’s government has defended its decision to pay private consultants €2.4 billion for reports and advice since 2018 by claiming that the UK spent 40 times more.
Macron has come under particular fire over government dealings with McKinsey, a US consultancy with which he has close links, which has been accused of failing to pay corporation tax in France for at least the past decade.
His opponents are hoping that the “scandal” will damage his standing ahead of the presidential election next month, when he is tipped to win a second term.
But Gabriel Attal, the French government spokesman, said: “It’s not a state scandal . . . I think we have spent 40 times less than some of our neighbours such as the UK on private consultants.”
The row follows a report by a Senate committee on the “growing influence of private consultants on public policy”. It found that the executive had spent €893.9 million on consultancy fees last year, up from €379.1 million in 2018.
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The total expenditure over the past four years came to €2.37 billion, including €957,674 for McKinsey to advise on a pension reform plan that was later dropped, and €558,900 for two other firms, the Boston Consulting Group and EY, to organise a civil service “managers convention”, which was also cancelled.
McKinsey featured heavily in the report. It was paid €496,800 to outline the “future of teaching” for the education ministry in 2020, €3.9 million to assess a government plan to reform housing benefit in 2019, and €12.33 million for advice during the health crisis.
The report said the firm’s work for the state during the pandemic included the appointment of a consultant supposed to liaise between the health ministry and Public Health France. The consultant was in place for three months, cost €169,440 and irritated staff at Public Health France by asking “every day at 3pm for updates on decisions taken at 9am”, the report said.
The average consultancy fee is €1,528 per person per day, the report said, with consultants often asked to convince civil servants to adopt new working methods.
One is the so-called “pirate ship” method, in which each civil servant has to play the role of a crew member, the report said. Another is the “serious play” Lego method which involves using building bricks to enhance “reflection and dialogue”.
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“These methods can be badly accepted by public sector employees,” the report says.
McKinsey came in for criticism after the committee reported that it had paid no corporation tax in France since 2011. The committee called for tax inspectors to investigate the firm, which it said had revenues of €329 million in France in 2020.
The claims are embarrassing for Macron, 44, who reportedly called upon McKinsey’s staff to help draw up his 2017 election manifesto. Le Monde said at least ten of the firm’s consultants had worked on his economic programme.
David Lisnard, a member of the centre-right opposition Republicans party, whose candidate, Valérie Pécresse, 54, is struggling in the polls, accused Macron of “conniving” with consultants, and called for an investigation.
Jordan Bardella, deputy leader of the National Rally, which is headed by Marine Le Pen, 53, the populist presidential candidate, denounced what he said was a “state scandal”.
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“We can’t hand the steering wheel of France . . . to private interests that don’t pay taxes in France and that are American firms.”
McKinsey said it has respected “applicable French social and fiscal rules” and paid taxes in “years when (it) has made profits in France”.
How Macron spent his millions
€3.12m to Capgemini consultancy for the creation of a “barometer of public action results” in 2021
€2.4m to EY consultancy to help create a “National Agency for Territorial Cohesion” in 2020
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€2.16m to Roland Berger consultancy to reform “vocational training” in 2018-19
€1.57m to Eurogroup consultancy to reorganise armed forces’ health service between 2018 and 2021
€1.2 million to Accenture and McKinsey to assess national health strategy in between 2020 and 2022
