Consultancy and its many issues

Apr 06, 2014 Editorial

It is becoming clearer every day that people are only paying lip service to the concept of engaging qualified local consultants. Local consultants are reportedly faced with conditions and demands that are outside of their contractual agreements. On the other hand, foreign consultants are treated as if they are the next best thing to sliced bread. Nowhere do we hear of an overseas consultant being told that s/he has to be in compliance with public service rules of engagement; on the other hand the local counterpart is expected to adhere to those rules even without certain privileges accorded the public servant. We should not forget the pay of the local consultant when compared to the emoluments and perks enjoyed by the locally contracted foreign counterpart.
The usual reason to hire a consultant is to get access to scarce or nonexistent skills that are vital for national or organizational development. What seemingly obtains in Guyana is that local (and some foreign) consultants are being hired to perform functions based upon their connections and not necessarily from their qualification or experience. The obvious result is heavy dependency by the consultant on the public servants who possess the institutional know how and who – if given the opportunity can deliver to everyone’s satisfaction.
Employers sometimes forget that the original and best reason to hire a consultant is to get intelligent and expert advice. In the experience of some local consultants what they are contracted to do is be a prop for the boss. In such an environment no real consulting occurs because the consultant very often is hesitant or fearful of asking good questions, gathering information about problems and/or offering advice based on experience and observations. However, the importance of using consultants from outside of organisations and even countries ought not to be downplayed, since very often the outsider observes what those from within take for granted and who may well be following irrational policies or unhelpful conventions and practices.
It is perhaps important to note that in some cases, independent overseas consultants work for multiple clients without oversight or management of their work process by a client, supply their own materials, set their own hours and work locations, and are paid for the delivery of the product or service. Not so with the local contractor who is expected to be on the job location like a public service employee regardless of the fact that work delivery is on schedule. Moreover, the local consultant working in the public service is admonished not to have any other form of employment during the contract period. What this practice fails to concede is that a consultant is being hired to do work that an employee should be doing in the first place. Therefore most of the value to be gained from consultants is from their advice, observations and some focus work; a few hours from a consultant could save the public service employer months of wasted employee time.
One factor that is often overlooked in the consultancy arrangement, and which should be explicit in the terms of reference is the requirement for capacity building as an intended benefit during design activities. However, serious capacity building should be organised separately from technical assistance since this would entail longer commitments and on greater scale than envisaged in the original engagement.
An important determinant of success in a consultancy that may not be observed in practice is the need for quality of the initial status briefing from among the relevant players within institutions. There institutional context briefings are particularly valuable, and can save a lot of time so that teams are able to engage and overcome challenges in a timely fashion. Good initial briefings and preliminary institutional scoping are especially important for the effectiveness of implementation and monitoring consultancies since the absence of appropriate background knowledge and direction tend to hamper progress.
All of the above is considered relevant in light of the preponderance of consultancies in the country and the disparities in treatment between the local and foreign consultants. We are left with wanting to know if consultancies are being monitored to ensure citizens are getting value for their money.

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Consultancy and its many issues

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