The big American consulting firms land at the Vatican. Pope Francis has engaged US international giants for financial and management auditing, with the aim of streamlining internal procedures, putting the accounts in order, increasing the efficiency of the administrative structure.
It should be a few months' work. A work to "allow the principles of the Gospel to also permeate activities of an economic and financial nature", as Francis wrote.
At the end of July, Bergoglio had already set up a referent commission that reports directly to him, such as the one for the IOR. Except that the field of investigation is "the entire economic-administrative structure of the Holy See" and the work is enormous. Thus the referent commission of lay people, chaired by the Maltese economist Joseph Zahra relied on consultants.
Top managers and accounting experts from the Promontory Financial Group, the company that has been tidying up the IOR's 19 current accounts for a few months, were chosen by Ernst and Young in charge of carrying out verification and consultancy work on economic activities and processes of administrative management of the Governorate (where tenders for most of the contracts are coordinated) and, according to the latest news arrived, also by KPMG, an auditing and tax consultancy firm with the task of "aligning the accounting procedures of all departments of the Holy See in order to respect international standards".
Finally, MacKinsey will help Francis put order in the communications sector, which is currently fragmented and scattered. The goal is to ensure that communication becomes "more functional, efficient and modern".
"There is confidence in the professional competence of the laity who make up the commission and choose the consultants", they clarify at the Vatican. However, the final word belongs to the only international group that will have a say in advising the Pope, i.e. the eight cardinals that he has chosen to help him with the reforms.
