House Passes Motion for Auditor General to Investigate Government’s McKinsey Contracts

A sign of U.S.-based McKinsey & Company management consulting firm in Geneva on April 12, 2022. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

A motion tabled by Conservative MP Garnett Genuis to request that the auditor general investigate the Liberal government’s awarding of contracts to multi-national consulting firm McKinsey unanimously passed in the House of Commons on Feb. 7.

The motion called for the House to accept a report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO), which is studying the federal government consulting contracts awarded to McKinsey & Company.

The committee report recommends that “the Auditor General be called upon to conduct, as soon as possible, a performance and value for money audit of the contracts awarded to McKinsey & Company since January 1, 2011, by any department, agency or Crown corporation.”

The committee started its study of contracts awarded to McKinsey after CBC reported an exponential increase in dollars spent on the firm since the Liberals took power in 2015.

On Feb. 6, the committee heard testimony from the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Helena Jaczek. Her department has spent $104.6 million on McKinsey since 2015.

Jaczek, who took over the portfolio in August, said she shared concerns about excessive outsourcing, but could not answer many of the questions sent her way by MPs and deferred to her deputy.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had tasked Jaczek and Treasury Board President Mona Fortier to look into the matter after the news broke.

The committee also heard on the same day from former McKinsey partner Ehren Cory who then became the CEO of the Canadian Infrastructure Bank (CIB).

Cory said the CIB had given contracts to McKinsey before his tenure and that under his watch not a dollar had been spent on the firm.

The CIB is a crown corporation that was established in 2017 based on the recommendations of the Advisory Council for Economic Growth, which was at the time chaired by the head of McKinsey, Dominic Barton.

Barton was then appointed as Canada’s ambassador to China in 2019, a post he left in 2021 after Beijing released Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

Barton testified at the government operations committee on Feb. 1 and downplayed his personal links to the Trudeau government and the importance of contracts from the federal government for the firm’s revenues.

The Globe and Mail previously reported that, based on filing made in a U.S. court by McKinsey, the New York-based company’s contracts with the federal government made up as much as 10 percent of its gross Canadian revenue from 2016 to 2022.

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) told The Epoch Times on Jan. 26 that the total amount awarded to McKinsey for 24 contracts since the Liberals took power in 2015 was $104.6 million.

PSPC added being aware of contracts signed by other departments for the sum of $12.2 million, noting research had not been completed.

McKinsey has defended its work for the government and accurately points out that other consulting firms conduct a lot more business with Ottawa.

“Our government work in Canada is entirely non-partisan in nature and focuses on core management topics, such as digitization and operations improvement. Our firm does not make policy recommendations on immigration or any other topic,” McKinsey said in a statement on Jan. 10.

Noé Chartier and Peter Wilson contributed to this report.