Thread by @allthecitizens

BREAKING: Over half a billion pounds (£510m) in Covid19 contracts were awarded to 35 management consultancy companies, @allthecitizens has found. £490m was won by just 10 firms. Thread:

Only 21% (29) of these contracts were published within the 30 day legal time limit, and just 5% (8/148) were awarded through competitive tender - the rest were either fast tracked or awarded through previous framework agreements.

The Ministry of Housing Community and Local Government, the Ministry of Defence, and the Department of Health and Social Care were the three biggest ministries that farmed out consultancy services.

Deloitte won 61% of the total amount, in 20 contracts worth over £312m. See this thread for more details, including controversies surrounding the company and its links to several members of the Tory gov:

https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/status/1356941311375519744

In Deloitte’s latest win, a £51m contract published 17/02/21, it states the company was hired because it was “the only” company “capable of facilitating the continuation of testing services” and that “no reasonable alternative or substitute exists”.

Consultancy PA Consulting Group won 7 contracts worth c. £35.6m. Sir Merrick Cockell is a senior advisor to the company, and was previously Conservative Leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and local gov. chairman.

Boston Consulting Group won 9 contracts worth £24.7m. According to the Register of Members Financial Interests, Tory MP Penny Mordaunt was recently paid £6,993 by the company for a speech in Frankfurt.

Accenture won over £27m. Their most recent contract, published 17/02/21, is for ongoing “Covid-19 Counter Fraud Consultancy”. Despite massive awards, the company reportedly were looking to make up to 900 lay-offs at the beginning of the pandemic.
theguardian.com/accenture/2020…

PWC won 16 contracts for £16m. The company's recent controversies include making £1bn+ for Brexit “advice”; £1.4m to distribute emergency charity funds that were reportedly poorly distributed; and reportedly creating a “dodgy dossier” to influence govt policy over online betting.

PWC are also political donors. Between 2008 and 2015, when regulation changed on company donations, they donated £574k to the Tories. They have also historically donated £1m to the Labour party, and £809k to the Liberal Democrats.

KPMG won £12.1m. Bill Michael, the UK chair whose salary in 2020 was £1.7m, stepped down this month after telling his staff to “stop playing the victim card”; it emerged 582 of it’s partners were paid an average of £572k each during the pandemic.

The latest Annual Member Survey from the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) of 500 consultants found that nearly 2/3rds of consulting leaders said they had met or exceeded expectations in the past 12 months (64%).
mca.org.uk/press-releases…

A growth of 9% is expected in the management consultancy sector in 2021, fuelled by pandemic and Brexit advice. This comes at a time when UK unemployment has been reported to reach a four-year high in Covid-19 lockdown.
consultancy.uk/news/26649/uk-…

While there’s no indication any consultancy or its associates and partners listed here have acted unethically or illegally, the number and value of contracts won by consultancies raises questions of government spending and transparency.

Last October, Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, responded to reports that management consultants had landed contracts worth £180m to carry out “strategic programme management” on the end of the Brexit transition period, saying:

We reached out to PWC for comment, but they did not respond.

@allthecitizens is constantly updating our list of published contracts issued during the pandemic. To keep updated and help us scrutinise the data, please see our thread below:

https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/status/1366386500687060997?s=20