An investigation into the hiring of consultants in Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s department has uncovered routine irregularities at a rate of 26%. The audit, which stretched for five years between 2018 and 2023, was conducted following public pushback over billions spent on consultants government-wide, an internal report obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter states. “In the last five years the department signed more than 8,000 consulting service contracts totaling $567 million to support the delivery of its programs,” said the report, Audit Of Procurement Of Consulting Services.“Due to recent media attention and subsequent targetted procurement audits in the Government of Canada this audit was conducted to help ensure the contracting of consulting services is appropriately carried out in the department."“Consulting services are services of an advisory and intellectual nature.”After examining a small, random sampling of contracts, auditors discovered of the 72 reviewed, 19 (26%) did not comply with the Financial Administration Act. Irregularities included cases where “the signed contract was not provided” and presumably did not exist, “contracts were being signed after the services were rendered” and one contract was approved “by an individual who benefited from the transaction,” said the audit report. The review also identified cases of contract splitting where a large payment was sectioned off into smaller billings of less than $40,000 to bypass competitive bidding requirements. Under federal guidelines, Contracting Regulations, sole-sourced awards may only be made in cases of pressing emergency, federal secrecy, exclusive talent or where “the estimated expenditure does not exceed $40,000.”Cabinet has repeatedly promised to curb spending on consultants’ contracts worth $21.6 billion annually. Budget Office analysts in a report released December 16 calculated spending on consultants had increased in six of the past eight years.“Spending on professional services continues to increase,” said a Budget Office report, Supplementary Estimates (B). The rate had doubled since 2015, figures showed.Records disclosed November 3 showed in one case the Department of Natural Resources hired a consultant for advice on how to save money on consultants. KPMG was paid $669,650 “to develop recommendations that could be considered as options to ensure Canadians’ tax dollars are being used efficiently and being invested in the priorities that matter most to them,” said an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons.“This is not about doing more with less or arbitrary cost cutting,” Treasury Board President Anita Anand wrote in the Inquiry document.“This is about ensuring public servants and public funds are focused on the priorities that matter most.”
