World Bank contracts 2017: Top 10 consultants

Devex’s recent analysis of World Bank contract awards data looked at the key sectors and regions that won funding in fiscal year 2017. Awarded in four procurement categories — goods, civil works, consultant services, and nonconsulting services — the analysis showed that 55 percent of contracts went to consultant services, amounting to $1.25 billion of funding. Here, we’ll look at the top 10 contractors for this important category — who they are and what they won funding for. Of 2,159 consultant awards, 932 (43 percent) were implemented in the Africa region, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia (22 percent), East Asia (12 percent), and South Asia (11 percent). Companies from the Democratic Republic of the Congo won the most consultant contracts — 145 in total, all for local projects. Côte d’Ivoire companies come in second with 78 contracts, followed by India at 74, France at 73, Afghanistan at 63, and the United States at 57. For this list, the contractors have been ranked according to the number of awards they won during fiscal year 2017. In the event of a tie, we looked at the total value of awards. The World Bank lists some contracts as having been awarded to “individual contractors.” These were not included in the analysis. Contracts won by the United Nations were also not included. It is no surprise that the “big four” are all on the list, considering their plethora of advisory services in government, health, infrastructure, transportation, and public policy. Interestingly, Sileshi Consult, headquartered in Ethiopia, is the only contractor from a developing country to have won a number of contracts. All eight contracts awarded to the consultancy were toward skills development in Uganda. Top 10 1. Egis International Founded: 1949 Headquarters: Paris, France Number of consultant contracts in 2017: 12 Total value of contracts: $19,774,622 Egis is an international group offering engineering, project structuring, and operations services. The group is present in over 100 countries and has around 40 offices in France. The consultant contracts were mainly toward water, sanitation, and transportation projects, most of them originating from its headquarters in France. The biggest contract of $7.47 million went to Egis France for a transportation project in Eastern Africa. 2. PwC Founded: 1849 Headquarters: London, United Kingdom Number of consultant contracts in 2017: 12 Total value of contracts: $13,734,031 PwC is the second-largest professional services firm in the world and one of the “big four” auditors, present in 158 countries. The firm offers an array of services in the areas of consulting, advisory services, accounting, and taxation both for the private sector and government. The firm won 12 contracts for projects in eight countries, covering a range of services such as transportation, energy, public administration, and more. The biggest contract, amounting to $3.75 million, went to PwC France toward electricity transmission and reform in Cameroon. Five out of 12 contracts were won by PwC India toward projects in Bangladesh, India, and Laos. 3. Ernst & Young Founded: 1989 Headquarters: London, United Kingdom Number of consultant contracts in 2017: 12 Total value of contracts: $7,605,667 EY is another of the “big four,” offering consulting, auditing, taxation, and accounting services. It operates as a network of member firms that are separate legal entities in 150 countries. The biggest contract worth $3.37 million was won by the EY office in Kenya toward a public financial management capacity project in Somalia. The major sector of investment was public administration, with six out of 12 contracts doing toward this sector in Turkey, Somalia, and Kazakhstan. 4. Baker Tilly International Founded: 1987 Headquarters: London, United Kingdom Number of consultant contracts in 2017: 11 Total value of contracts: $455,076 Baker Tilly is an international firm in the field of accounting, assurance, tax, and specialist business advice in 147 countries. The Baker Tilly firm in Romania won the most number of contracts — eight out of 11, all for different projects. Overall, six contracts went to a mix of projects in Tajikistan. The biggest contract of $240,000 went toward public financial management capacity building in Somalia. 5. KPMG Founded: 1987 Headquarters: Amstelveen, Netherlands Number of consultant contracts in 2017: 9 Total value of contracts: $1,454,108 KPMG is a multinational firm with three major lines of services: Financial audit, tax, and advisory. These services are further divided into various industries such as financial services, consumer and retail, infrastructure, energy, government, and health. It has a presence in 155 countries. KPMG’s East Africa office in Uganda received the highest value contract at $499,000 million toward transportation in Uganda. 6. Deloitte Founded: 1845 Headquarters: London, United Kingdom Number of consultant contracts in 2017: 9 Total value of contracts: $724,779 Deloitte, one of the “big four,” is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of professionals. It has a presence in more than 150 countries. All nine contracts it won were implemented in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, in diverse sectors. The biggest contract in 2017 was $396,000 toward strengthening the banking regulation project in Tajikistan. 7. Tractebel Engineering Founded: 1986 Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium Number of consultant contracts in 2017: 8 Total value of contracts: $19,263,638 Tractebel Engineering is a global engineering consultancy with over a hundred years of expertise in energy and infrastructure projects, present in 33 countries. It won eight contracts overall, including seven for the African region. Tractebel Belgium won the most contracts, all of them in the energy sector. The biggest contract of $11.4 million went toward an energy project in West Africa. 8. Sileshi Consult Founded: 1984 Headquarters: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Number of consultant contracts in 2017: 8 Total value of contracts: $1,784,824 Sileshi Consult was established as an architectural and engineering design services firm, including the supervision and project management of complex civil works project. All contracts were awarded under a skills development program in Uganda, aiming to improve the capacity of institutions to deliver quality and relevant training programs in agriculture and manufacturing. 9. Grant Thornton Founded: 1924 Headquarters: Chicago, United States Number of consultant contracts in 2017: 7 Total value of contracts: $2,278,700 Grant Thornton is an audit, tax, and advisory firm and industry expert in public policy, energy, health, and technology. It has a presence in over 135 countries. The biggest contract of $1.2 million won by Grant Thornton India went toward the agriculture sector in the state of Rajasthan. The second-largest contract was for a flood recovery emergency project in Bosnia, awarded to Grant Thornton’s Greek office. The main sectors for Grant Thornton overall were water, sanitation, and agriculture. 10. SMEC International Founded: 1970 Headquarters: Melbourne, Australia Number of consultant contracts in 2017: 6 Total value of contracts: $10,693,986 SMEC provides consultancy services for major infrastructure projects in a broad range of sectors, including transport, water, environment, hydropower and energy, government and advisory services, and social development. All SMEC International’s contracts from the World Bank in 2017 were for transportation projects in four countries in Asia. The biggest contract was to the tune of $3.53 million, for transport sector support in Ethiopia.