Policies, procedures often broken in awarding contracts to under-fire consulting firm: auditor general
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Canada's auditor general is blasting federal government departments and agencies for disregarding their own procurement policies and failing to manage risks relating to contracts awarded to McKinsey and Company.
Canada’s auditor general is blasting federal government departments and agencies for disregarding their own procurement policies and failing to manage risks relating to contracts awarded to McKinsey & Company.
In a new report tabled Tuesday, Auditor General Karen Hogan found that the organizations showed a “frequent disregard” for contracting and procurement processes when awarding contracts to the global management consulting company.
The vast majority of them, the audit reveals, failed to properly follow all aspects of their policies on at least one contract and many organizations did not always have a way of demonstrating contracts offered value for money.
“We concluded that professional services contracts were often not awarded to McKinsey & Company in accordance with applicable policies,” the report says. “The federal organizations’ frequent disregard of policies and guidance was evident by missing bid evaluations and poorly justified use of non-competitive approaches.”
Between January 2011 and September 2023, 10 federal government agencies and 10 Crown corporations awarded a total of 97 professional services contracts to McKinsey & Company, worth a total of $209 million. $200 million of that money has been spent.
Of the 97 contracts awarded to McKinsey, Hogan found about 70 per cent were issued as non-competitive contracts and at least four appeared to have been designed and implemented to suit McKinsey & Company specifically.
“Federal contracting and procurement policies exist to ensure fairness, transparency, and value for Canadians—but they only work if they are followed,” the report states.
