At this point, the audit process broke down. A division director at GSA intervened at McKinsey’s request and removed the contracting officer who had attempted to obtain the audit records. The GSA director then unilaterally awarded the contract to McKinsey, even though parts of it exceeded market prices by as much as 193 percent. As an added bonus, the director tacked on an additional 10 percent rate increase, and later another 3 percent, to the already bloated contract, according to a 2019 report by the agency’s inspector general. The GSA’s unjustified price increase cost U.S. taxpayers an
...more
