The Italian government said on Saturday it had signed a $30,000 contract with McKinsey to help it rewrite plans for spending the European Union funds aimed at rebuilding the economy

The Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government is facing criticism for hiring consulting giant McKinsey .

The government did not give details of how much work the firm would do, but the sum is very small by the standards of consulting firm costs.

An Italian official told Reuters that McKinsey was willing to work pro bono but the government insisted that they have at least expenses paid.

A representative for McKinsey had no comments.

Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank with no political affiliation, took office last month after the collapse of the previous coalition. A first priority is to redraft Italy’s Recovery Plan, which must be handed to the European Commission by April to tap more than 200 billion euros of EU funds and revive the pandemic-hit economy.

With time running out, the Economy Ministry said in a statement that it had asked McKinsey to assess the plans already prepared by the other EU countries and to provide “support for monitoring the finalization of the (Italian) Plan”.