Recruitment of Project Consultant
Development project implementation has requirement, provision and arrangement of national and international consultant services according to the project design, nature and type of professional requirement in the relevant field embodied in the project document for execution of the project components and activities. While the international expatriate consultants are mostly recruited during negotiation between donor and the relevant ministry in the appointment of national consultants two methods are followed, namely, (1) direct interview with the project authority, including donor representation, of the short listed competent professionals by inviting application through the national dailies and (2) recruitment through the consulting firm(s). In the latter case the consulting firm has to prepare both technical and financial proposals for submission to and approval by the project authority and donor wherein the technical proposal generally contains impressive CV of learned professionals (collected through contact and persuation) in the field the firm intends to provide services for execution of the project components and activities.
As a convention, the project authority forms committee to check, scrutinise and finalise its assessment and recommendation for selection of firm(s) by the project authority who performs all the related A to Z tasks in line with the stipulated terms, condition and guideline of the project prepared and agreed by donor and the line ministry. In some cases the firm also performs as local agent of the donor who has no representation in Bangladesh.
While the recruitment by direct interview leaves no scope of criticism in the consultant recruitment process the appointment of project consultants by firm(s) raises a often number of criticisms as and when it has availed obtained the programme contract offer. First, the proposed consultant is deliberately and subjectively ignored on the plea of being expensive or not available. This stems from the fact that the cost (!) coverage margin from consultant's fee proposed in the project estimate is either low/minimal as the fee was not negotiated earlier during submission of CV. Second, even if the consultant is available and ready to work he is offered a lower if not sub-standard rate of fee in order to discourage him from joining the project. It has been observed by many a national professional that the rate of fee proposed in the project is provided at a ratio of 80: 20 or at best 70: 30 between the consulting firm as the employer and the professional as the consultant. Third, collecting CV of professionals and negate them when the time is appropriate and provide service to the project with persons of own choice at low cost ignoring quality aspect of the services provided. Fourth, the employee of the firm has to submit two vouchers for his monthly fee to the firm - one for the amount he receives and the other for the actual amount of the project estimate the firm would submit for bill collection from the donor/project authority. Fifth, the consultant may be changed during the project period by the firm subjectively which is beyond any professional ethics.
In essence, it is evident that the principal aim and wisdom of many a consulting firm is economic interest to mobilise fund from the project and build fortune consequently at the cost of professionals' (irrespective of recruitment by choice or as proposed) knowledge, expertise and services. Even a layman can understand that there is no associated cost on the part of the firm in hiring the consultants for a project. But once the consultant is recruited by the firm he has to pay for their establishment cost, administrative overheads and hidden cost, if any. Is it rational? If yes what are the factors that advances a consultant to pay all these costs directly out of his labour and effort and if not why there should not be some standard norms and rules by the appropriate authority of the government to administer and regulate the consulting firms? I draw here the kind attention of ERD of the government for future measures in recruiting national consultants by consulting firms in donor assisted development programmes.
This write-up is based on a recent fact on my part where a consulting firm collected my CV one year back through persuation for a seven-year assignment in a development programme of the Ministry of Agriculture funded by an international donor, then availed and obtained the programme contract offer, but did not open a dialogue with me and excluded my credentials subjectively to recruit another person of their choice. Besides, I was assured by the firm of the job and also advised not to undertake any long term assignment for which the firm obtained a written undertaking from me. Seeking redress of the issue an approach through the donor though futile was undertaken by me. The donor was represented by another consulting firm in Dhaka and they simply didn't intimate me anything. Nevertheless, my question to all concerned is, why there should be any double standard treatment for project consultants by consulting firm(s) because consultants are professional, not laymen.
In the above backdrop of national consultant recruitment by the consulting firm(s) in development projects for execution of donor assisted development programmes, I appeal to and urge upon the concerned authority of the government including the ERD, the donor community and the line ministries that while development projects be further implemented by consulting firms all parties concerned should strictly adhere to the norm of appointing the consultants proposed with CV in the technical proposal submitted and recommended by the Evaluation Committee. The practice by consulting firm(s) to collect CV of competent professionals for technical proposal preparation and submission and then negate them subjectively once the programme contract is availed of must be stopped where the government line ministries, ERD and the donor community have a positive and significant role to play. This will bring justice to the consultant recruitment in development programmes and save them from humiliation, maltreatment and exploitation. The best practice and approach to overcome all pertinent issues in this regard is, however to adopt the direct interview method by the project authority through advertisement in the national dailies which is still very much adopted by many projects funded by donors. The writer is a Credit Consultant.
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