The European Commission’s “management of the use of external consultants does not fully ensure that it maximises value for money”, the EU’s Court of Auditors criticised on Thursday 30 June.
The Commission increasingly uses external consultants to perform a range of advisory and support services.
The value of services of this type that it procured between 2017 and 2020 were worth €3.7 billion, according to the Court of Auditors’ report on the Commission’s management of external consultations.
However, “the framework adopted by the Commission to govern the use of these services has significant gaps”, the report states (https://aeur.eu/f/2g7 ).
In particular, for consultancy and research services - which account for almost 80% of outsourcing expenditure - there is no guidance on the extent to which tasks can be outsourced, how the services of external consultants are defined, or what resources and capacities should be maintained in-house. In addition, for some consultancy services for recurrent tasks, the Commission does not carry out cost-benefit analyses before issuing new calls for tender in order to assess the relative merits of using external suppliers rather than internal staff.
The use of consultants “also gave rise to potential risks of overdependence, competitive advantage, a concentration of suppliers and potential conflicts of interest”, the auditors deplore.
During the period under review, the European Commission concluded contracts with 2,769 external consultants. But the top ten providers alone accounted for some €600 million, or 22% of the total value of contracts for the same period. This means that some Commission services make extensive use of a relatively small number of contractors.
It is not uncommon for the same provider to win successive contracts over several years, although open tendering procedures are regularly organised. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)